Stardust
by Lady Artimes Blaine
Summary: Impossible, that which cannot be achieved. His sister, Anna, dreamed of a woman that could do the impossible...Her Doctor. Will didn't believe it until reality decided to turn his life into a maze of questions, his past and future colliding. Why because her Doctor was real. *Book 1 of The Star Chronicles*
1. Prologue: Worlds Collide...Sorta

Prologue: Worlds Collide...Sorta

Now a lot of people would be ecstatic to know that not one show they loved but two of them were real...just not how she found out. She was killed by her favorite tv show and was reborn into one of her best friend's favorite tv shows.

What are these two shows, you may ask? Doctor Who and Sanctuary, respectively, but she was about to get a crash course through her sister's, in all ways except blood, brain. Why because her best mate/soul sister was a fucking genius and she had a bad habit of making dozens ... DOZENS ...of tv shows, movies, manga, anime, books, even fan fiction and music...literally collide in spectacular Technicolor!

Whoa, whoa, whoa...yeah, don't think that I don't know what you're thinking. Yes, I am getting ahead of myself, no, you don't get to start from the very beginning, yes, the story is starting, and yes, there will be flashbacks and time skips...unless you want to read the daily account of two siblings for several years...yeah, didn't think so.

Now...a few minor details considering that there will undoubtedly be some fourth wall breaking at some point...my "author"...really? More like my sister is writing the damn thing herself and okay...venomous death glare from said sister…ahem...moving on.

My author/sister does not own anything she makes references to...more like straight up steals then twists it into the ultimate fucking rollercoaster of emotions where you're screaming one second, happy another, crying for the fucking enemy in the next, not to mention the thousand and one interconnecting relationships and the insane scenarios spewing out of her head at warp nine...and alright, alright...sheesh...stop with the fucking death glares already!

She does not own anything she makes references to. She does not own the characters used by the plethora of media she is drawing from. She does own her character and she might as well own mine because I swear the woman is a fucking mind reader and we don't even live in the same state… eventually... I swear I am going to track her down and we'll get a place of our own! Someday I tell you!!!

Ahem, anyways...a good chunk of the beginning will be taking place from my POV...point of view for you non literary types...oh shut up! Have you seen our education system?! It's worse than a toilet that hasn't been flushed for over a week...and that's being polite!

Fine, whatever...point is...read if you want...or if you can't then what the hell are you doing here in the first place...if you don't want to read then what the hell are you still doing here...shoo shoo.

As for the people that totally want to read the awesomeness that lies ahead...i advise getting snacks, a lot of drinks, a whole lot of coffee, several boxes of tissues, and some honey flavored cough drops. Why? The feels, man, the feels...this bitch is gonna make you scream, make you weep, make you jump for fucking joy, make you laugh your ass off only for you to start bawling your little bitch tears because the feels...THE FEELS!!!

And one final death glare from the authoress...hmm...i like that ... authoress...almost as good as shenanigans...nope. Nothing is better than shenanigans...not even fish fingers and custard! I'm gonna run away now...why...because I think my sister wants to mutilate me….BYE!


	2. Chapter 1: Through the Rain

Chapter One: Through the Rain

_Running...always running but never escaping. Her friend, her sister, her Doctor...holding her hand and urging her on. Tears...constant flowing tears. Her Doctor was crying...her family by blood had just died before her eyes.__Now only the family by bond remained but not for long. Running...always running… tears...always tears. Now she was dying...her Doctor still clinging to her hand, unwilling or unable to let go but she needed to. Her Doctor needed to let go or she would share her fate.__This time...this time...she would save her...like her Doctor had done for her so long ago. Let go...her mind kept saying...Don't let go...her heart was screaming...Save her...her soul demanded.__With a scream of anguish, she ripped her hand from her sister's grasp. Her friend, her sister, her Doctor screamed out her name as their friend dragged her away and she couldn't help it. She had to say it one more time._

"Artz!!!" She screamed bolting upright, her eyes flying open.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realized that it was only a dream...a dream of a memory...a memory from another time, another life...a whole different timeline that used to be hers.

The familiar shapes of her bedroom came into focus, her heartbeat slowing down...her mind going numb. The door to her bedroom flung open, light from the hallway spilling in, but she didn't move...barely registered it at all. All thoughts ceased, her emotions locking themselves deep within...a coping mechanism if there ever was one, a bad one at that.

"Anna!" The distant voice of her older brother creeped into her head as his arms wrapped around her, holding her close.

Petrichor...the smell of dust after the rain...this was her brother's natural scent...ironic really. Given the word's connection to the origin of what killed her...the reality bomb. Her favorite tv show, the one that had truly brought her and Artz together...it was an event from that very same show that had finally ripped them apart.

They had been through so much together. She often wondered what her life would have been like if she hadn't met Artz...a notion her entire being always ran away from whilst screaming bloody murder. She never wanted to be without her Doctor...to feel that loneliness again.

She could barely remember what her old life used to be like before meeting the impossible woman known as Artz Lanaria..._the reflection of the Doctor_. The irony was that Artz was not just some mere reflection but something else entirely.

She was as blazing hot as a thousand suns, colder than the deepest ocean, was a walking contradiction, and possessed an impossible kindness that put even the Doctor to shame. To Anna, her beloved best friend that she had completely claimed as hers...she was her very own star, bright and beautiful.

Something hot hit her bare shoulder, given that she was only in a spaghetti strap shirt and pajama pants, and slid down her icy skin.

Water?

No..._tears_...his tears...her brother was crying. Shit...she hated when he cried. The idiot did it so rarely that it still packed the mother of all emotional impacts...the dick and it was a trigger that her mind and heart had become conditioned to react to.

Her mind slowly came back online, a few thoughts drifted through yet fleeting. The tension in her stiff body began to bleed away as she blinked. Her amethyst eyes returning to their normal vibrant shade of purple.

She reached up with her arms to hug her brother's arm but that took all the effort she had in her. Her eyes began to close again, exhaustion setting in again...the call of sleep too irresistible to ignore.

"Sorry...Will...sleepy…" She slurred fighting to stay awake.

"Go back to sleep, Anna. I won't leave." He replied softly, lowering them back down onto the bed.

She curled up next to him, her head automatically coming to rest above his heart. She wasn't sure why his heartbeat was so soothing to her but it had the desired effect. Within moments, she was once again asleep.

True to his word, Will didn't leave. He didn't even go back to sleep. He just laid there, holding his baby sister in his arms as she slept. He tried to stop trembling, fear still gripping his system.

Every year...the same three and a half weeks...her nightmares would return. They started one week after New Year's Eve, from January the eighth to Febuary the second.

Like clockwork...he never understood why, but that didn't stop him from rushing to her side every time she screamed, an instinct that had developed when they were young. Their mother for the span of four years had been in the hospital, mainly for physical therapy.

He had been eight at the time and Anna was six. The siblings had gone camping with their mother and were attacked by some sort of animal. Their mother barely survived and she spent almoat a year in a medically induced coma just so she could heal. It took another three years before she was physically fit enough to reclaim custody of her children.

During that time, they had been in the care of their father...if you could actually call him that. He wasn't even sure how their biological father managed to get temporary custody of them at all…given the circumstances of why their parents were no longer together in the first place.

Every time Anna's nightmares started up, he would smack her around, yelling at her to shut up. Will took it upon himself to be her shield during those times. He protected her, taking most of the hits for her though it didnt stop her from getting into trouble...a lot.

Every time something was broken or shattered or cracked, she said she did it and their father would whip her with a leather belt every time...she couldn't sit down properly for almost two days each time and he would always internally flinch every time she winced or hissed in pain.

The problem was that he could never remember how those things were broken. He suffered from chronic headaches that ventured into extreme migraine territory more often than not. He actually wondered if he was the one that was breaking everything and if his baby sister was, in fact, covering for him...it wouldn't surprise him in the least.

He had never been happier in his life when their mother had come to take them home with her. He had been especially pleased when she started smacking the hell out of their father when she noticed that her children were covered in fading bruises and the welts on her daughter from where she had been whipped all the time.

Their mother wasn't always such a fierce warrior. She had been the submissive type at first, quiet and obedient...the perfect wife for their father but then she had kids. She became a mother and it was then that she realized that being married to her husband was wrong.

She had tried to make the relationship work after Will had been born but things deteriorated quickly. She tried so hard to keep the peace… to keep their family together, knowing exactly what it felt like to be raised by a single mother.

It was a terrible feeling...going through a divorce. The kids always got the short end of the stick then promptly beaten over the head with said stick. She didn't want that for her child so she did all she could think of to at least keep it civil but it just kept getting worse.

Things had gotten so bad that she had completely stopped sleeping in the same room as her husband and always stayed with her son. He didn't really remember much from that time but he did remember his mother screaming as his father forced himself on his wife.

One of the many reasons why Will hated his father so much. He had raped his wife and got her pregnant. He even forced her to get an abortion but for some inexplicable reason, the operation had failed and it was too dangerous to try again.

He did not want another brat taking up all of his wife's time which he believed belonged solely to him. He got so desperate to be rid of the fetus that he beat the living hell out of his wife. It was a miracle that she didn't have a miscarriage. The fact that his sister even existed after a failed abortion and a severe beating...mind boggling and quite frankly, impossible but that was his sister for you...an impossible thing.

He remembered when his headaches had started...the night his mother was beaten to an inch of her sanity...it was the first time he had blacked out. Not long after, his mother hit her soon to be ex husband over the head with a cast iron frying pan.

Why...because he had been trying to drown her son in the kitchen sink. When the police investigated the incident, they found no proof of the actual crime but due to her injuries, they did remove her and her son from the premises, believing that they were being abused.

She divorced the bastard and changed her name and Will's last name back to her maiden name of Zimmerman. Come to find out later that she had tried to get a restraining order against her ex husband but due to lack of evidence, mainly due to how limited technology was at the time, it fell through...the court even decided that their father could have temporary custody should anything happen to her before child services would gey involved. The bastard even changed his last name to theirs so as to 'simplify the proceedings'.

Will quickly pushed those thoughts away, knowing that it would do nothing more than incite the wrath of his migraines, and refocused on what was really important...his baby sister and extended family, mainly their god parents and their friends.

His mother gave birth about five months later to his baby sister and due to her purple eyes, she named her Amethyst, but it was their godfather, Uncle Sei, that suggested the middle name of Anna. Good thing too because as soon as she could speak, she insisted on being called Anna.

She hated it when people called her Amethyst. She hated it even more when he called her Amy but he only did so when she was being irrational or flat out petulant. His sister has an exceptionally strong will and an intelligence that has never matched up to her physical age.

People called her a genius...a child prodigy. To which she would scoff and say that they were way off base. She was studious, yes, but by no means a genius. When he asked her why she didn't believe that she was a genius, she told him about the woman from her dreams.

Shaggy dark blonde hair with eyes of a deep forest green, reasonably short at five feet, three and a half inches tall, slightly overweight, but with a mind that even Anna had problems keeping up with..._a lot. _The woman was apparently a true genius but like Anna, she never believed it...at least not for a long time.

According to his sister, the blonde had an imagination that could rival God and had such a high level of resourcefulness that you would think she was the MacGyver of the literary world.

Words were definitely this woman's forte along with something called _Jiggery Pokery_, the so called art of creative solutions. To this day, he still rolled his eyes every time he heard that ridiculous saying… especially when his sister started chanting..._All Hail the Queen of Jiggery Pokery!_ Why...just why...why was that even a thing to begin with?

For the longest time, he hated the woman from his sister's dreams. She was the one that made his sister cry and scream in her sleep, yet Anna continued to talk up a storm about her precious Doctor. She would not shut up about this woman and over time, he became angrier and angrier.

When she called this Artz woman her sister, he blacked out again. When he woke up, his godfather was holding him in his lap and they appeared to be in a hospital. When he asked why, Uncle Sei turned him towards the bed and his blood ran cold.

Laying in the hospital bed was his baby sister, his most precious person in the world to him, and she was covered in bandages, some of them stained red from her blood. He started to panic and he could feel another headache coming on when he felt a small zap to the back of his neck.

The headache faded but it left him awfully dizzy. He kept swaying about until his godfather handed him over to his mother. She cradled him in her arms, whispering countless apologies to him. To this day, he didn't understand what happened, how his sister had gotten hurt, or why his mother kept apologizing to him over and over again.

He swore that he would always protect his sister from that day on but he needed to know more about her dreams, so a few years later, he finally worked up the nerve to ask and almost wished he hadn't because it was nuts...everything she said was fucking insane and she believed every word of it too!

He had gently tried to persuade her that they were just dreams… especially after everything that had happened with their father but she would simply smile at him, her amethyst eyes looking so much older than what they should be and said that he would have one of two reactions...he would either believe her or betray her.

He had been floored by that statement and started arguing, saying that he would never betray her but she simply replied that he would never believe her either and that although it made her unable to truly trust him, that she would never stop loving him.

For the first time in his life...he lied. He lied to his baby sister and said that he believed her...that even if no one else ever believed that he would. The smile that lit up her face that day was unlike anything he had ever seen before and she started crying tears of joy before hug tackling him to the floor, thanking him over and over again...saying he was the best big brother ever.

_No...he wasn't._

After all these years...he still didn't believe. He was still lying to her and if he told her the truth now, then what she said about him betraying her would come true so he just lived with the guilt...because he would do anything to protect his sister even from himself. All he wanted was for her to smile like she did then...that smile, that beautiful and brilliant smile...how he wished he could see it again.

Every time she started telling him about Artz and her other friend Erin with a few stories about Artz's older brother, Trinity, thrown in here and there...he would listen. He had hoped that by listening to her ramble on and on that the smile he loved so much would return but it never reached her eyes like it did that day.

He always paid attention though, soaking up every detail in a vain attempt to understand her better. He would even ask questions for clarification and she would either sigh in fond exasperation or giggle like a little prankster and start explaining...more like word vomiting. Holy crow...did she word vomit!

She told him so much...about every little thing that seemed so obvious to her yet had his brain spinning in circles. She would spin out story after story, mainly the events occurring _after_ she had met Artz, but boy did she gush when it came to the fan fiction stuff.

He'd admit that some of these stories that Artz had supposedly come up with were quite the puzzle. Some of them were so twisted that he had to actually draw up a flow chart, much to his sister's amusement, just trying to keep track of all the twists and turns then make another chart to sort it all out in a way that his brain could actually comprehend.

Some of the stories were just fucking inspiring as hell and he was often blindsided by the blonde's wisdom… solely based off of the simple observations of the people around her. The way she saw the world, mapping out its infinite possibilities, creating tales of mischief and adventure, of love and trials, of hope and despair...remarkable, simply incredible...unlike anything he had ever imagined.

He would begrudgingly admit that Artz Lanaria was the reason why he wanted to study the mind. He wanted to understand his sister and why she insisted that Artz was the true genius when the blonde was nothing more than a figment of her own imagination.

His dear younger sister was the one with the god-like imagination… though he wasn't quite sure about the resourcefulness bit. When it came to practical application...totally spot on, definitely the female version of MacGyver...but when it came to words, she seemed to fall a bit short...which never made sense to him. It was discrepancies like those that made him question whether or not his sister had a split personality.

It didn't change how he felt or that he kind of wished that the blonde haired goddess of creativity… to which he would always deny that he had ever referred to her as such... was real and not to beat the shit out of her for making his sister cry...though it would be awfully tempting.

No, he wished she was real because...because he was in love with her. He knew that she wasn't real yet listening to all those stories...he just sort of did. In his mind, she was..._perfect_. If he had a type...it was her which is ironic given the similarities to his sister.

Kind, compassionate, loyal, noble, brilliant, perceptive, imaginative and inspiring. She inspired his life's work of being a profiler, helping him figure out exactly what he wanted to do. She showed him how to look beyond the obvious and see everything.

Don't overlook it just because it was too easy or too predictable because more often than not, the simplest solution was the correct one. He flat out refused to admit any of this to his sister. He would never hear the end of it...he could practically feel the smugness and if she knew how he figured out he was in love with her dream girl...oh the humiliation he would endure.

It just sort of hit him one day...while he was on a date no less. He was constantly comparing his date to his sister's dream girl. He honestly tried not to but he just became so bored with her...with all of them. Every girl he dated...none of them measured up. They were all so..._ordinary_ and he realized that he hated them for it.

He could see all the little details about every woman he dated...he managed a few long term relationships but that was before he fully committed to profiling. It was the same things over and over again; meet the girl, chit chat, test the waters, progress the relationship, incessant meaningless chatter about shit he really didn't care about..._boring, so utterly boring._

He did his best to make each relationship work, despite his inability to trust any of them. Look, there were two...technically three women that he trusted; his mom, his sister, and his godmother, Aunt Gin.

It was weird though...one day Aunt Gin didn't come back and neither did their god cousin...was that actually a thing? He saw Uncle Sei one more time about a month later and then he disappeared too along with his friend, Jack.

There was one woman that he had been enthralled by. He didn't know her name so he just called her Stardust because her eyes sparkled like fairy dust and seemed to glow with a light from within. She only showed up when Anna was really young and then when she wasn't around.

He was totally her favorite and he always made certain that she smiled. She was so beautiful when she smiled and sweet Menti Celesti...her voice, the sound of it always made his head feel so much better...like he had been drowning in an ocean of noise and when she sang, everything else became muffled white noise and he could actually think properly.

But then just like Uncle Sei and Aunt Gin, his Stardust disappeared too. His mother had told him that she had passed away and at the time, he hadn't understood what that meant and he said that he wanted to follow her. He had never seen his mother look so utterly devastated in his life, not even when Anna was in the hospital. Even after he had learned what it meant...he never did quite believe it.

So depressing...his life just seemed to be one tragedy after another; the train wreck that was his parents marriage, the how of his sister's conception, the divorce, his sister in the hospital, his godparents vanishing off the face of the Earth, the supposed death of his Stardust, the rollercoaster of a shit storm that was his school and college years, and his romantic life was so far in the toilet that he was pretty sure that he was superglued in the sewer somewhere and left to rot for eternity.

Most of his relationships tanked after the fifth date, if he was lucky, and the ones that didn't had revolved mainly around sex. He was used by his exes because he was physically attractive, didn't overcomplicate things with lovey dovey crap, and he was well endowed.

He got plenty of practice over the years with the steady stream of girls that just wanted to get laid by a hot guy...good gracious, so many one night stands. Anna said that there was nothing wrong with being picky when it came to relationships but he honestly thought that he was too picky.

He wanted variety, spontaneity, predictably unpredictable, the good kind of crazy, silliness and goofiness, random debates and inspiring speeches. He wanted just one word to spark an entire conversation that lasted for hours if not days.

He wanted someone that enjoyed the simple things in life but didn't mind picking apart the complex. He wanted someone that noticed something absolutely amazing but everyone else walked by it like it never existed and she just has to point it out to him.

He wanted a woman that loved sounds...seriously, he was insanely sensitive to sounds and could tell you the make, model, and type of engine in a car from over four blocks away. He wanted a woman that could pick up that one slightly off note in an otherwise perfect performance but he also wanted a woman that would randomly bust out in song for no apparent reason.

He loved playing his electric guitar and wanted a woman that would not only listen to him play but be able to play or at least want to learn how to play an instrument. His sister favored the piano, the flute, and the sound mixer. They really needed a violinist...they had a violin and a fiddle but neither if them could play them worth a damn and the acoustic guitar had been gathering dust for almost a decade due to his obsession with his electric guitar.

Artz...that insane, impossible woman...she taught herself how to play the violin. Why...because of her love for a dub step violinist that she had stumbled across accidentally on the internet. She taught herself how to sing with and without music because of an acapella group called Pentatonix and a vocalist named Peter Hollens.

After watching one season of Dancing with the Stars, she taught herself how to dance; waltz, tango, salsa, and the list went on. If it existed, she made certain to learn it...or at least try to. Some of the dances were beyond her range of flexibility which resulted in her taking classes in a wide variety of martial Arts and meditative techniques; Tai Chi, Kung Fu, yoga and even ballet.

The woman even taught herself how to do dub step with a violin and learned breathing techniques so she could dance, play the violin, and sing all at the same time...then claims she couldn't multitask to save her life. Stick a violin in her hand and she multitasked like a fucking badass.

Artz loved listening to the rain falling on the roof...she would stare in awe at the way a street lamp lit up the misting rain at night while standing under a tree. She would be inspired by how the clouds in the lower atmosphere would move so swiftly, almost like they were being summoned, while the clouds higher up stayed perfectly still.

After a storm, she would point at the trees and say that they were weeping as the wind blew through them, knocking the water off the leaves. She would be enthralled by a single person randomly singing and if she knew the song, she would join in and if not, it didn't take her long to figure it out and join in anyways.

Sweet Menti Celesti...he really needed to stop thinking about her and all her would-be reactions. The more he thought about her, the more he loved her. The deeper he fell, the more frustrated he became. Was it so wrong...to love someone so much just from listening to stories about them?

He couldn't keep thinking like this...he needed to stop. He needed to face reality. She wasn't real...just thinking that made his heart skip a beat...he really, really wished he didn't have to date at all. His life would be so much simpler.

The only reason why he hadn't sworn off dating entirely was due to a nagging mother and an even more nagging younger sister. Both were apparently oblivious to his predicament or they knew and were trying to give him hope. That maybe one day...he would find his Artz. His Artz...a smile tugged at his lips but then stopped.

_For the last fucking time… Artz Lanaria, the woman that does the impossible...the woman he would forever love...SHE ISN'T REAL!!!_

It was with that thought and a sudden bolt of lightning that snapped him out of his head. His sister's face was scrunched up like she was in pain and she was gripping his shirt so tightly that her knuckles were white from the pressure.

"Light...don't. Please...don't. Poseidon...Captain...please...why… why won't you save him? Save him! Stop him! Save him! Please! Light!!" Anna mumbled before screaming that last word.

She awoke in an instant, climbed out of bed faster than his brain could comprehend, and started throwing on clothes. He managed to get untangled from the sheets as she clambered out the bedroom door while trying to lace up her shoes.

He ran to his room and threw on clothes at a faster rate, knowing that he needed to follow her. The last time this happened, they had stopped a little girl from being kidnapped from the fairgrounds but who the hell was Light and Poseidon and which one was the captain?

He didn't have time to think about it because she was already heading out the door. He followed as quickly as he could but the moment they stepped outside, he had to take her hand and let himself be dragged because the rain was so heavy that they were already soaked to the bone and the streets were already starting to flood.

Holy shit, this was a lot of rain. He had never been in a downpour this hard before...at least not while in the city. The roads already had over a foot of water and it was still raining.

The storm was so bad that he could barely keep his eyes open, his visibility decreased to only a few inches in front of his face. He could barely make out his sister's silhouette and if he hadn't been holding her hand like a vice grip, he wouldn't even know that she was there at all.

They had been sloshing through the rain for almost two hours and he could tell from how cold his sister was that one or both of them were going to get sick from this little jaunt.

His ears picked up the sounds of multiple engines, high grade diesel, heavy in weight by the deep tones of the water being pushed away. The deluge made it difficult to pinpoint the exact velocity but he managed to fixate the direction in which it was coming from.

"Oh geez!" He exclaimed barely pulling Anna out of the way as a convoy of military vehicles drove down the street, "What the hell is going on?!"

That convoy was not standard issue military. The designs were wrong, the formation was wrong, the color and weight of each vehicle was wrong...after a closer listen to the engines, they were definitely not United States military.

"It's her! They're going after her and the others! We have to get to them first!" His sister shouted over the downpour.

What? Who was her? Was Light a she, no, she had said him before so was the captain a third person that happened to be female or was it Poseidon that was female? Who were the others that she was referring to? What the hell was going on?!

"Who are you talking about?" He yelled trudging after her.

"Artz!" She shouted in response, "Light's gone, but Poseidon and…"

The rest of her words were entirely garbled because she had turned away from him and trying to pull him through the highly flooded street.

What the holy living fuck?! They were out in this fucking storm from hell because his sister's dream girl was...what...being hunted by an insane military commander?

No...he had put this off for too long and even though his heart was breaking...this had to stop. Anna needed a fucking wake up call and ground herself in reality before she completely lost herself to an endless delusion.

Hell...they both needed a fucking wake up call! He had let his heart be stolen by an imaginary woman! He had made it impossible for him to ever find love in the real fucking world!

Worse still...his most precious person...his beloved baby sister...she loved a made up sibling more than him! She was his sister! She was his! Why? Why?! WHY?!

In frustration, he yanked her hand towards him and she lost her balance. She fell into the two feet of water at their feet and as a result, her feet got twisted up with his legs and he fell too. He barely managed to stop his fall, his hands and knees banging harshly into the asphalt.

"Amy." He said and he got the usual, "I told you never to call me that, William."

"She's not real." He started his voice quiet and his tone barely concealing his rising frustration and anger.

"What? What are you talking about? We don't have time for this! Artz is…" Anna interrupted trying to push him off her but he stayed rooted in place.

"ARTZ ISN'T REAL!" He shouted in rage, making his sister go completely rigid...her eyes unblinking and completely transfixed on him...in a harsh tone laced with a quiet fury that all but demanded that she listen to him, "She's not real. She never has been. She's someone you made up...the sister you never had...someone you could trust completely because a made up person could never hurt you."

Her purple hued eyes took on that older look again...the one he hated so much and she fucking smiled.

"That's why I'm her truest believer because even if no one else believes, I always will." She stated her eyes drowning in loneliness, kindness, resignation, resolve, and an unconditional love that only a sibling could give...throwing his own words right back at him.

Hearing those words again after all these years, it struck deep...deeper than a blade ever could. Why? Why did it have to be this way. Why did they have to be this way?

"Why? Why do you believe in her...but never in me?" He asked trying to understand why he wasn't good enough.

He could hear the pain in his own voice and he realized just how much it hurt him...the knowledge that his own flesh and blood, his baby sister, the person he loved most in the real world...loved, trusted, and believed in a person she made up more than him, an actually real and living being.

He felt like such a hypocrite because he loved Artz almost as much as his sister did. If she was real, there was no doubt that she would have his complete faith and total trust...if she was real, he would believe anything she told him...just like his baby sister did.

It still didn't change how he felt...the ache in his heart of not being good enough for his sister...that she created a sibling that was so much better than him for her to believe in. He has made so many mistakes, lied to her all this time, failed to protect her like he said he would...he betrayed her; her trust, her friendship, her love.

_He didn't deserve to be her brother._

"I have always believed in you, William...even when you lied to my face...ever since you said that you believed me...i knew you were lying." She answered shocking him.

That did it...his heart broke… shattered into dust. She had known… she had known the whole time. He could only stare into her amethyst eyes, knowing that everything he felt in that moment was written all over his face for all to see.

He opened his mouth to say something...anything but no words came...only hot, stinging tears mixing with the pouring, freezing rain...and still she smiled...and his heart broke again though he was pretty sure his soul had just cracked like an egg at the same time.

"I still believe in you...why? Because I love you. Why do i believe in Artz because I love her. I will not choose between you two because both of you are mine." She continued rolling them over so that she was on top and she smirked, "Which is why I'm gonna drag your sorry ass with me until I find her and then I'm going to lock you two in a fucking room."

She got off of him and pulled him to his feet then proceeded to drag him through the flooded streets. It was pretty easy to do so because he put up no resistance...simply letting her do as she wished.

"Why?" He asked all the fight in him gone.

He couldn't fight against her...not her...not his baby sister...his most precious person. She meant everything to him and he couldn't live without her. They did everything together. If ever seen alone, it was only because of work or scheduling problems.

They had gone to all the same schools, she graduated two years early just so they could start college at the same time. She had helped him with his college application and helped him land a full scholarship as well. She was always by his side.

She got a job during their college years because he had lost his scholarship...no fault of his own; they decided to only offer one full scholarship to the best candidate which at the time was his sister and three partial scholarships to the three just barely below her.

He just had the misfortune of one of his teachers being the father of one of his ex girlfriends and the jerk was always on his case, grading his work with a harshness that only a pissed off parent could pull off and he barely passed the course which meant his grade point average took a major dive.

He fell into fifth place which meant the ax for him and the two other students below his GPA. So in typical Anna fashion, she took on the task of paying for his schooling.

She worked full time, extra shifts, overtime galore, and she still managed to be a straight A student. How she managed studying for two degrees and do all this extra work just to pay for his tuition?

_Coffee...lots and lots of coffee and she chugged an energy drink like every two to three hours on top of that._

It was a fucking miracle that she hadn't worked herself into an early grave but she did develop a rather nasty addiction to caffeine… years later and he still hasn't managed to break her of that habit completely.

The inevitable did occur and she collapsed from sheer exhaustion… and caffeine poisoning...yeah, that shit will kill you if you ingest a concentrated amount and she had passed that limit in a week.

She ended up being fired due to her extended absence which was total bullshit. The only reason she was let go was because she refused to have sex with her supervisor and the little prick took it personally.

Unfortunately, it was her word, the absentee employee suffering from caffeine addiction, versus the word of a well respected, filthy rich philanthropist that happened to be rather charitable to all the big time law firms capable of actually suing the bastard and winning.

As always, his sister was not ruffled in the slightest. She had just shrugged and said that she had made enough already to cover his expenses until the end of the year and with her credentials, skill sets, and absolutely fantastic resume...to which he had actually gotten on his knees and begged her to write up his when had been applying for a profiler position with the Federal Bureau of Investigation...it had been easy for her to find new employment.

Then the idiot almost worked herself into the ground again...ending up in the hospital a second time because she was working two part time jobs, maintaining perfect grades and was close to completing two doctorates after only four years which usually took anywhere from eight to twelve years depending on the field of study.

He didn't even have to yell at her because one of the nurses and one of the doctors, a woman named Sherrie and her flatmate/co-worker named Dean, had laid into his sister hard...seriously hard...even he was not spared.

They had sent her through the ultimate ringer of a guilt trip and Anna relented and gave in to their logic...first time that had ever happened and he doubted that it would ever happen again.

Then they turned on him and Sherrie scolded him for not taking better care of his sister and Dean simply smacked him in the back of the head, said he was his sister's completely whipped bitch, and that if she ended up here again because her brother was still waiting for his balls to drop that he was going to shove them into strait jackets and have them carted off to the nearest looney bin where there was a lovely white padded room reserved just for the two of them.

The irony was that the rather gruff yet rugged doctor had not been lying because Will actually checked. The closest one was a sanitarium with mainly bat shit insane serial killers, notorious sex addicts, and sociopathic scientists...and they had a reservation in the max security wing for a very small, white padded cell that was part of the isolation division where they just loved strapping patients to gurneys for the hell of it.

The siblings came to a mutual understanding and decided not to tempt fate...and a particularly sadistic doctor that was always a man of his word and not afraid to deliver on his threats. Though they were grateful that Sherrie had him on a tight leash and convinced him to call his younger brother.

Turns out that Dean's younger brother, Sam, was a lawyer for an independent firm that mainly dealt with the upper echelon of society. After meeting them and discussing Anna's termination from her previous job, Sam agreed to take the case and adamantly refused to accept payment for his services.

Why...because the Zimmerman siblings were the reason he and Dean were even speaking to each other. They had some sort of falling out, about Sherrie mainly, and hadn't spoken to each other in almost two years. Then the siblings came along and during Anna's treatment, Dean saw how similar their relationship was to him and Sam.

It was why the gruff doctor decided to reach out to his own younger sibling and the two were able to reconcile most of their issues...but they were still brothers and they still squabbled. Thus the reason for Sherrie...she scared the hell out of both of them and they just did whatever she told them to do.

After a lot of effort from all parties involved, they had successfully sued the backside off of his sister's first employer and gotten her a hefty sum of money as a settlement. It was enough for both of them to finish college, for Anna to quit both her part time jobs, for both of them to avoid a one way trip to Insanity Valley and actually buy and own an entire floor of flats in an apartment building.

He still wondered why they needed all the space but his sister had simply replied _Spoilers!_ when asked. He was pulled out of his thoughts and back into their current conversation when she looked back at him with a grin that would make the Cheshire Cat proud.

"So you two can shag like rabbits." She said it so matter-of-factly that it made him laugh, "I'm serious, Will. I know for damn sure that you compare every woman you have ever dated and will ever date to her...without fail but let's be honest...a novelty i know...I do it too. If they can't pass my Doctor's standards then they are not worth my time or any further thought whatsoever. "

He snorted, partly in disbelief of the sex thing and partly at the fact that she was completely right...though he was glad that he wasn't the only one doing it. Still he often wondered if his sister was a mind reader, if he was just that obvious, or if it was because he never had his guard up when around his sister.

He was pretty certain that she could read minds, had eyes in the back of her head, and could see the fucking future because otherwise he could not explain even half of the shit she had pulled off over the years.

"So what if we do? It's not like she'd date me, let alone have sex with me." He replied his tone certain.

Based on all the stories his sister had told him about Artz...one: she was a virgin. Thirty years old and still a fucking virgin...two: she had an aversion to physical contact. If she didn't initiate it then she did not want to be touched...at all. He was pretty sure that it had to do with her ADHD and some kind of trauma when she was seven years old but Anna had refused to elaborate and he didn't press the matter.

Three: Artz was completely oblivious to romantic love. Correction: she was oblivious to romantic love in regards to herself. She could easily identify it in others and often played matchmaker, but when it came to her own heart...nope.

She had never felt that kind of love and her mind didn't know how to recognize it in herself nor was she able to recognize it if someone loved her. Even her love for the Doctor was something she didn't and quite possibly couldn't comprehend.

Hell...you could tell her you loved her straight to her face, point blank, looking right into her eyes..._and she would not believe it. _

Why...because her family had filled her head with utter nonsense like she was useless, a disappointment, that even if a man claimed to love her that all he wanted to do was get in her pants, fuck her senseless, use her like a sugar momma, mouching off of her until they found some hot piece of ass to fuck then stealing all of her money and valuables, leaving her life in ruin and she would probably be knocked up too.

It was utter fucking bullshit. They had worn her down, made her feel insignificant, that her only purpose in life was to get a job, get paid, take care of the family and that she was selfish for putting her desires and wellbeing before anyone else's.

By the time his sister and Artz had met...through the internet, yes, but through a fan fiction site...the woman had been so repressed that she was suffering from severe persistent depression and a fair bit of anxiety. At the time, she wasn't on any medication and was dealing with both of those issues on top of her ADHD and insomnia...Anna swears the woman was simply nocturnal.

It took several different online friends almost two years to get Artz to the point where she might actually be receptive to proper encouragement. Then Anna got her claws into her and did not let go. When Artz stopped messaging entirely, his sister scoured through their insanely long private messaging thread to pick out every little detail about Artz's life.

It took months, piecing everything together, trying to locate the woman that was his sister's Doctor, but eventually she succeeded...and shocked the living hell out of Artz when Anna suddenly popped up at her place of work with her friend, Erin...a fellow fan of Artz's stories.

The three of them were together ever since. Her brother became a more active participant in her life, mainly due to Anna being a stubborn bitch. They made her happy. Anna, Erin, and Trin worked diligently to try and undo three decades of psychological abuse and it wasn't until the end of the world that Artz discovered just who exactly she was...the amazing and brilliant genius that her two best friends and elder brother had always seen.

She told her mother and grandmother that their universe was being destroyed...they didn't believe her. She had told them that it was the reality bomb from Doctor Who...they definitely didn't believe that which was why she had been slapped twice with the second one sending her to the floor.

She just stood up, said a few words and they disowned her but not Anna and Erin nor did her elder brother, Trinity. As the darkness came, Artz became a star of hope, a shining beacon that called to the hearts of an entire world.

The most brilliant minds of their age were drawn to her, inspiring them to do the impossible...and they did...but it was too late...the sun faded, the darkness fell, the world screamed in despair...and yet she still had hope. If she could save just one life...Will almost lost his composure.

Anna's description of those events and the graphic novel she wrote, drew and colored herself had always been a bit too accurate for his taste. So much emotion and honest reactions...so much pain and the human race banding together like they had done in far smaller crises.

It just seemed _too real_ and he didn't really want to think about it right now and his sister was definitely sensing the shift in him so she...well she was Anna...his ridiculous and crazy younget sister that just had to try and cheer up her depressed elder sibling.

"Dude, what rock have you been living under? Artz would not hesitate to jump your bones. Hell, she would give you her virginity without thinking twice and sweet lord...if she knew just how badass you are with an electric guitar...oh my god...she would not care who was in the room, she would rip off your fucking clothes right then and there...and you ever sing around her, I can guarantee that I will not see you for three weeks, big brother.

Why...because of one episode, that's all. It was called Fugue and you sang and holy shit...i'm pretty sure she nutted herself the first time she watched it...and quite possibly every time since. She fucking loves it when you sing. She actually blushed when she told me that she wanted to sing a duet with you.

I cannot wait to get you two together. Maybe then I can actually find myself a bloke or a girlfriend. I'm open to either so long as the two most important people in the whole of creation to me are shagging like a pair of Nubbins." Anna retorted eliciting a small smile from him and an almost inaudible chuckle.

He was going to reply when the water level in the streets suddenly decreased to nothing. The streets were actually dry...even the rain was being pulled, forming several small mid air rivers and all going to what looked to be the same place.

"What the hell?" He asked wondering what the hell was happening right in front of his eyes.

He had never seen anything like it...no, that wasn't true or had that just been a dream, an illusion? His godfather had done a magic trick when he was really young, making water seemingly float in the air. He made it spin like a mini whirlpool and Will remembered the child like wonder he had felt at the time.

His godfather had quickly tossed it into the sink when their mother had walked in. His uncle had winked at him, only for Will to notice that his godfather's eyes were a mirrored obsidian without pupils...everything except the whites of his eyes were that solid mirrored obsidian...so dark yet so much warmer than his normal blue eyes. To this day, he didn't know how Uncle Sei had done it or why his eyes changed colors.

"It's Poseidon! Come on! He's got to be close by!" She exclaimed pulling him into a full out run and forcing his brain back into the here and now.

They ran several more blocks before spotting the military convoy that had nearly run them over earlier. Anna skidded to a stop and pushed him to the side just as a massive wall of water crashed into the convoy, making it disappear.

Will was certain that it hadn't been washed away. There wasn't any groaning of metal or vehicles being turned over and pushed away, but he could no longer hear the deep throaty tones of the engines anymore. It was like it just got sucked into the water and vanished except for a few stragglers including a dark skinned man that gave the profiler a really bad feeling.

He wasn't sure what it was about the man that put him so on edge, the instinct to protect his sister hitting him full force. That man, some kind of military commander and he was probably the convoy's leader, was someone to be avoided at all costs and his sister seemed to be thinking the same thing.

His sister pulled him behind some bins to hide and he looked over at her. She was terrified, her eyes locked on to the dark skinned man as if he was a giant snake about to swallow her whole if she looked away for a fraction of a second.

He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, his right hand cupping her face and keeping her ear right above his heart. He didn't know what else to do. He was so far outside the box that he felt like he was in the matrix telling Neo that there was no spoon...in his case there was no box.

She calmed down a little but her eyes never left the man until he was no longer in sight, seemingly retreating from whatever force that had just made his entire convoy disappear. The profiler was caught off guard when the rain suddenly returned, half drowning him because he had his mouth open.

It was weird though...the rain...it tasted like salt, rust, and something metallic, almost like copper. He would realize later why that was but then the downpour intensified making it nearly impossible for him to see anything.

He turned his attention back to the area where the convoy had vanished and he could only stare in disbelief when a human like figure rose from the water before solidifying into an actual human.

Said human, from what little he could actually make out, was dressed a lot like Hook from Once Upon A Time, one of his sister's most recent obsessions… the show not the man though he vaguely recalled her saying that Artz was obsessed with the quite frankly arrogant prick.

He didn't really like Hook. He was a self absorbed jerk that stole other people's wives and it was his own damn fault that his so called love was murdered. Anna assured him that the arrogant and rougish Captain would grow on him...like a fungus she had said. What Artz saw in the guy, he didn't know. If he had to pick someone for Artz to be paired with in the show, it would be Graham aka The Huntsman or Regina aka The Evil Queen...possibly both...it would probably take both to handle her.

He had gotten lost inside of his head because he was only now noticing a wave of water rushing towards their impromptu hiding spot. There was no way they would make it out of the way in time. Anna had barely pulled him to their feet when the wave reached them.

Anna's hands shot out in front of her and her eyes changed from amethyst to liquid silver as a silver white light shot out of her hands and formed a dome of transparent silver white light around them. The silver, while see through, was metallic like looking through a mirror. The white parts fluttering and flickering throughout the silver was like someone reflecting light off of said mirror.

Will was, quite frankly, in shock. When the hell did his sister learn how to do that? How come he didn't know about this? Why didn't she tell him? The memory of her saying that she would never be able to fully trust him slammed into the front of his mind and his brain began to short circuit...the beginning symptoms of an impending headache...no, definitely a migraine and it was going to be a whopper.

He could barely focus on what was happening, the pain in his head disrupting his ability to think properly. His sister's self generated light shield didn't stop the wave, but it did reflect it right back at the sender before the light vanished and her eyes returning to normal. Said sender merely snapped his fingers and Will watched the water flow into the man's body… like he was a fucking sponge or kin to the rain woman, Juvia, from the anime Fairy Tail.

The pirate like figure began to walk towards them, only to start swaying on his feet after a few steps. He hunched over, looking like he was in terrible pain, before he fell to his knees and started coughing up blood.

He threw out his left hand, the back of it shining with some kind of crest...a starburst, no, a hook on top of a prismatic symbol...the profiler couldn't quite make it due to his blurring vision, and the water began to rise again, the rain around him swirling into an incomplete shield.

The pirate seemed to be having trouble controlling the water of the shield, so he shifted his posture and the water changed shape. He then tossed his left hand toward them, the water forming into rather sharp looking tendrils and shooting straight towards his sister.

"Petrichor!" Anna yelled over the deluge, much to her brother's confusion.

To Will's amazement and astonishment, the attack that had been about to spear through his sister's body suddenly stopped. The tendrils now hung motionless in the air, mere inches away from her face.

The man's highly aggressive stance shifted to one of surprised relief with a touch of weariness. He said something that Will couldn't hear but he did understand what his sister said though he didn't comprehend the meaning.

"Yuna!" She yelled a look of relief on her face but also worry but not for them but for the man that had just tried to kill them twice.

Will heard something along the lines of 'Find the wench.' but he was pretty sure that he had to have misheard. Who the hell in this day and age referred to a woman as a wench...when it wasn't Oktoberfest that is?

The tendrils of water fell to the ground as the hand that had summon them into existence dropped to his side. The pirate like figure transformed into water and several streams, some being rather dark colored, flew through the air in the opposite direction of th. Zimmerman siblings.

The rain returned to the heavy deluge from before and they just stood there. His sister looked so happy, a shit ton of worry still present in her eyes but she looked more alive now than ever before.

Why...why did almost dying twice to some freak of nature make her so fucking happy?! His thoughts kept crashing into themselves, making him temporarily forget the impressive display of power from his sister mere moments ago and the headache that was making his brain pulse with a constant throbbing pain had now fully formed into a full blown migraine, the pain becoming so sharp that it felt like a knife was being stabbed into his brain and slicing him wide open.

"Anna...what the hell just happened because I don't...i can't...my head...i can't think…my head...my head is killing me. Anna..." He started the mother of all migraines hitting him so hard that his vision splintered like glass.

Pain shot through his head and into his eyes and he barely made out his sister throwing herself to the side. His vision shattered into a thousand fragments...like a mirror being broken and its shards reflecting a thousand different angles.

Why? Why was this happening again? The last time it hurt this bad was when his sister had called Artz her sister. Why? Why did his eyes hurt so much and why was he hearing that terrible buzzing sound whirling around him...no, away from him...like a...like a...like a…he couldn't think, his brain was overloading with a vengeance.

Will lost consciousness but not before hearing someone scream...was he screaming...a higher pitch joined the lower one, his sister, and he heard the subsequent shouting of his name as he fell backwards. He was out cold before ever making contact with the ground.


	3. Chapter 2: Echoes of Yesterday

Chapter Two: Echoes of Yesterday

William Zimmerman, a criminal profiler and the greatest disbeliever, had awoken on the side of the road with his sister holding onto to him for dear life and crying..._don't go, don't leave, stay for me, please come back...i need you...i love you...please don't leave me all alone. Big brother...I'm sorry...please..._

His eyes opened slowly, his vision was still blurry and his head was killing him. It wasn't the usual headache...it felt like the back of his skull had smacked into something rather hard. He groaned when his younger sibling tightened her embrace, making his head throb painfully.

A random image flashed across his mind...a watch. A shiny black fob watch with silver engravings and a beautiful blue jewel in the shape of a trident...or was it a silvery cat's eye like metal in the shape of a hook? No, one was on one side and one was on the other, but one would always disappear...maybe darken or fade. Yes, fade...fade into the dark yet smooth surface of some kind of polished stone...weird.

He recognized the detailing in the background, the shapes were so familiar. They were important to him somehow but due to his painfully throbbing head, he was drawing a blank. He just knew that it was around a person's neck. The person was male with a salty like scent...like the scent you smell when you're close to the beach, calm yet oddly cold. Then the scent seemed to deepen like the smell of the sea during a storm, wild and strong but so warm.

This person had been holding him, protecting him...from what he couldn't seem to remember but Will knew he was safe with this person...it was someone he trusted...but who? Who would he have trusted so easily and why couldn't he remember? That was going to bug him. He hated not being able to remember specific details...especially when it came to the people in his life. Memories are precious and must be protected...his Stardust taught him that.

He had to stop thinking about it though and deal with his blubbering, half panicked younger sibling that looked like she was caught between hysteria and relief. When Anna loses control over her deeper emotions...well let's just say that she doesn't do anything in half measures...it was all or nothing.

He slowly sat up, a wave of dizziness coming over him and he fell back into his sister's embrace. She started apologizing again but for the life of him, he couldn't understand why. He smiled at her, raising his left hand to stroke her face.

He noticed how quickly she brought it back to her face when he tried to remove it. He must have really scared her this time. She only ever got clingy when she was at the higher end of the fear spectrum.

"I'm fine, Amy." He stated while sitting up again and expecting the usual response but didn't get it.

He looked over at her, the rain having slowed a bit while he was unconscious, and he took in her appearance. The little details flashing through his mind, highlighting themselves briefly and allowing him to read her.

Her head was bowed, her sopping wet hair covering her face, preventing him from seeing her eyes and most of her expression. She was on her knees with her fists clenched tight and resting on top of her legs.

Her shoulders were tense like she was waiting to be yelled at or something. Her entire body was trembling, either from being wet and the cold air or by the fading adrenaline of nearly being killed twice.

Then it registered...she was waiting for him to yell at her...probably to call her a monster or a freak of nature. He mentally winced at the thought. He hadn't actually meant the freak of nature comment in his head about the water controlling pirate.

"Look I know I smacked the back of my head pretty hard on something but you are more than welcome to smack my arm or another body part because I called you Amy." He informed playing it cool until he could fully assess her mental state.

Different emotional states for his younger sister meant different approaches for diffusing the situation and dealing with the problem. She mumbled something that he didn't understand.

"Sorry I didn't quite catch that and no, I am not being sarcastic. I genuinely didn't hear you." He stated seeing a ghost of a smile pass fleetingly on her lips.

"I actually like it when you call me Amy." She said quietly.

He blinked, having not expected that little confession. Why did she suddenly splurge that out? Was she trying to compensate for him getting hurt or was she trying to redirect him from what was really bothering her?

"Why? You always tell me _not_ to call you that." He asked allowing the segway for the moment.

He needed her to calm down before he started poking at her emotional state. He did not want to provoke her wrath. He had never been on the receiving end of it personally but his first girlfriend was. It was his high school sweetheart...before he fell for a possibly real woman named Artz.

Her name was Gabby Monroe, bleach blonde hair and eyes about two shades lighter than forest green...the irony was not lost on him in the slightest. They had been dating almost three years and he had fully intended on marrying her after they graduated.

What happened to make him dump her faster than a speeding bullet...the bitch was orchestrating attacks on his baby sister and not just teasing or bullying either. She was having the seniors beat up his little sister and with a glance through her email, which was so horrifcally easy to get into to that it would have been laughable had it not been for what he found.

There were several emails from a guy called Joshua Grant, the back up quarter back for their school's football team. It started out as simple chatting before it turned into word sex and when he stumbled across an archive of saved emails from the same guy with a shit ton of attachments, he actually punched his hand through the screen.

When he later explained why he had wrecked the monitor of a school computer to the principle and school resource officer, he wasn't punished and he didn't have to replace the monitor either.

Why...because all those images archived onto HIS girlfriend's personal email account were of his baby sister being raped by Joshua Grant and it was his soon to be ex girlfriend that had been taking the pictures.

The SRO and several of the staff scoured the grounds for Anna, seeing how she wasn't in class which was highly unusual for the straight A student and candidate for valedictorian. They found her on the far side of the gym, in one of the old portable classrooms that had been converted into a storage unit.

She was tied up in true BDSM style and the two responsible were having sex while a camcorder filmed both Anna and themselves. It had been quite the fiasco getting them pinned and cuffed.

Why because the moment Anna was freed from the ropes, she started beating the living hell out of them and quite successfully too...all while being under the influence of several different drugs that were suppose to keep her weak and helpless but a pissed off Anna was a fucking force of nature...Vash the Stampede, the so called _Humanoid Typhoon,_ would be pissing his pants and running away in complete terror.

Even the staff knew better than to intervene for the first few minutes until Will walked right passed them and grabbed his sister around the waist and dragging her away from them. He wanted them to die but he wasn't going to let his sister go to jail for murder and he was absolutely sure that she would have killed them if given the chance...and he would help her too.

Later on that night, after they were taken home, he asked her why she hadn't said anything. Why didn't she tell him? Her answer..._how do you tell the person you love most in this world that his girlfriend was not only cheating on him but also trying to break his younger sister so she would stop being in the way? _

She had paused for a moment before saying..._I don't want to hurt you. You mean everything to me. I love you, big brother, and that's why I didn't tell you...couldn't tell you because I love you... I love you so much that the mere thought of hurting you in any way...it breaks me. I'm sorry...I'm sorry, big brother...I'm so sorry._

It killed him...it really did. He had failed to protect his baby sister and he still hasn't forgiven himself either. They were so busy trying to protect each other that they were the ones causing the most harm to one another.

"Amy is a future companion of the Doctor so you're not gonna understand the why until she shows up in the show and the only reason why i tell you to not call me that is so that it can act as a trigger." Anna finally explained having taken a minute to get her thoughts together.

"A trigger? For what? And smack me if I'm wrong...a reality check?" He asked trying to understand her reasoning.

"In a sense. I've trained myself to react to certain words and phrases...a safety measure of sorts. I know what I'm like when I go full throttle in the emotion department and when i shut down from the lack of emotion. I wanted to make sure that you always had a way to reach me...to save me...from myself.

It's funny. I had to do the same thing for Artz. She had a bad habit of shutting off her emotions and when she is full logic mode with no emotion to stop her...she's extremely dangerous.

We had gotten grabbed off the street by some kind of human trafficking ring and she shut down her heart in order to ensure our survival and our escape. The only problem was that beyond her and me, everyone else fell into the category of acceptable losses or collateral damage.

I never told anyone this...not even her...but she killed someone. Yeah, it was the bastard that had been groping us in the van but she didn't even blink. There was no hesitation in her actions.

She snapped his neck like a toothpick before casually removing the cell keys and freeing the other captives...but not to save them but so they would be the distraction that allowed us to get away." She explained her eyes so old and hollow.

"But she came back to you, right? You brought her heart back, right?" He questioned stunned by his sister's story...you can't make shit like that up and say it with a straight face.

"No... I didn't. She did. Something inside her fought back and she started punching the nearest wall, a brick wall at that before ultimately ramming her forehead into said wall.

She woke up a few minutes later in a panic because she was covered in blood, her left wrist was broken and her right hand was just a mangled mess, but she was Artz again.

She didn't remember anything after she was slapped in the cell, complete and total black out. I told her that one of the other captives was an undercover cop and that she had broken us out.

She believed me of course. I was the one person she trusted most and...and I lied to her. I lied to her face for years and I died having never told her the truth.

Just like I've been lying to you. Never telling you about my power, about abnormals, and the Blood Guard...I've kept so many secrets and I can't...I can't...I can't…" She trailed off her eyes flashing to the liquid silver as she started to hyperventilate.

Her entire body began to glow in a soft silver white light and he realized that she was about to explode. His mind began to race, searching for something that would break through to her but what? He didn't know what the words or phrases were that she had conditioned herself to respond to.

The light became brighter, slivers of gold piercing the silver and his mind went to the only thing it could associate with the color gold...a song.

"Flower, gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine

Heal what has been hurt

Change the Fates' design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine

What once was mine." He sang mentally wishing that he had his electric guitar with him.

He honestly sounded atrocious without his guitar, in his opinion at least. You put that instrument into his hands and his sister heralded him as the god of rock and roll.

He waited a moment and sagged in relief when the light faded and her eyes returned to the dark amethyst he loved so much. Her breathing slowed and the tension bled out of her form, her body slouching in fatigue.

"You're such a liar. _I can't sing without music._ What a load a bull." She teased a tired smile gracing her lips.

"So what now? Because if we stay out here much longer, we'll both catch pneumonia." He replied deliberately diverting the conversation away from his terrible singing.

"Would you mind if we check out the alley? The rain has slowed down a lot and I have this feeling." She requested her eyes hopeful.

The weird thing was...he also had a feeling that something was in that alleyway...something that was meant for him...at least for him to find. Anna was always harping on him about not trusting his intution and quite frankly, he wanted a fresh start with his sister.

He couldn't exactly call it a leap of faith considering all the weird shit he has seen tonight but he was determined to prove something to his baby sister...that this time..._he believed her._

He honestly believed her now and no matter how impossible it would be or how insane everything was bound to get at some point..._he would always be by her side._


	4. Chapter 3: Fading Light

Chapter Three: Fading Light

The Zimmerman siblings made their way, rather slowly due to Anna's exhaustion and Will's splitting headache, into the alley that the water controlling pirate had originally came from.

There really wasn't much to see considering that the street was flooded. There were two dumpsters near the far end and what looked to be another alley running parallel to the main road. Trash and litter floated on the water and was getting plastered and stuck to an assortment of objects.

The duo split apart to investigate; Anna went further down the main alley while Will took the side alley. Fortunately, the rain had slowed down to a more average rainfall so it was at least possible to keep his eyes open.

Said eyes were scanning every object, scouring each inch, analyzing every little detail he could and attempting to compile all of it into a possible scenario. A fight definitely took place in the alley, much of the water in the area was tinged in red meaning that there was either diluted paint or diluted blood. Given the events thus far, his money was on the latter.

The pirate had been injured but Will hadn't been able to locate any injuries so whatever wounds that had been sustained must have been to the man's back, but what would cause such a massive amount of blood loss in so short a time?

He let out an inaudible grunt of pain when something from above him collided with his head. He looked around, his eyes roaming the water at his feet until something blue caught his attention. The only reason why it had was because it was not the normal shade of blue. It was vibrant and it seemed to sparkle like metallic spray paint.

He knelt down into the water and fished around the gunk to pull out the object. When he finally got it out of the water, all he could do was stare. The sparkly, metallic blue object was in fact...a police box. It had a dark green jewel at the top where the light would have been, the paint was partially faded and revealed a silver coppery surface beneath.

It was something that was worn often and usually in direct contact with skin. The bottom plate was slightly crooked and the words _POLICE BOX_ were engraved near the top. What surprised him though was the slash along one side of it like something incredibly sharp had cleaved it away. Overall the box was intact, missing the chain and being partially damaged but it had survived.

He didn't have to ask his sister about it. He knew what it was, who it belonged to, and what it meant. The blue box was a Tardis...the Doctor's space/time ship. It was worn as a pendant by Artz Lanaria...a physical reminder. It was the promise of her name, the promise of the Doctor...it was a physical manifestation of the woman's soul.

To Will...it was proof, actual physical proof that the woman he had fallen in love with, the woman that had irrevocably impacted his sister's life not once but twice, the woman that faced the absolution of certain death and lived..._Artz Lanaria...she was real._

He just stared at the little blue box resting in the palm of his hand. He didn't know what to think, what to feel, and he had no idea what to do now. What was he supposed to do? He was literally holding Artz's soul in his hand...his sister, sweet Menti Celesti..._she was right...had always been right...right to believe...right to have faith...to never give up...to never let go._

All these years...not once did he truly believe. Tonight...he saw a man form out of water and wield the rain itself. Tonight...he learned that his beloved baby sister had an extraordinary gift. Tonight...he finally believed..._she had been here...he had been so close...if only...if only…_

In his own head again, only this time it was his own feet walking on their own that had gotten him into trouble. He had apparently walked back towards the junction that connected the side alley to the main one and his foot was now stuck in a partially removed grate. He barely managed to safely pocket the Tardis pendant before the grate gave way and his leg slid down halfway in before he was able to catch himself.

The water from the alley began rushing in, following the path of least resistance, and the profiler had to fight against a rather strong current...otherwise his other leg was going to get sucked down into the sewer. He pushed the debris and litter following the water out of his way and managed to get his leg almost out but then his hand, which had been supporting most of his weight, buckled and he was submerged, the water feeling so much deeper than just two feet.

The water was murky and it was hard to see, but at least under the water, he could tell what was keeping him from removing his foot from the grate...some kind of chain, similar to the ones that men put on their wallets or attached to a pocket watch. He reached down, hyperaware of the little blue box in his pocket.

He didn't dare lose it. It was far too important and he wanted to return it to her himself...give back her soul. He pulled on the chain but it kept getting caught both on his leg and on the grate, the water still rushing in didn't help either. His lungs were beginning to burn from the lack of oxygen. He needed to surface soon or he was going to drown.

A pair of hands reached around him and untangled the chain from the grate, allowing him to remove his foot from the drain and push away to a safe distance. He surfaced a moment later, turning around to thank his sister...but no one was there. He looked around but the alley was void of people. Where was Anna and who was it that helped him?

He felt a soft touch on the palm of his right hand, a ghostly brush of a single finger, and he looked down. There was a feminine hand reaching towards him, clearly trying to grab something...probably him. He reached down, attempting to push his hand further into the water but it hit something solid and the hand faded from view, still trying to reach and then it was gone.

What the hell just happened? How could someone be deeper than the actual level of the water? He then realized that his hand was on top of a cylindrical object. He picked it up and rinsed the mud and grime off of it. His eyes widened as he recognized the object..._a fob watch...the same one the man had worn around his neck when protecting Will as a child_...but how could it be here?

"Will?" Anna called from nearby.

"Over here!" He shouted rising to his feet and wincing when he put pressure on his leg.

Yep, he was going to feel that for a while. His sister sloshed over to him with what appeared to be a partially ripped, black plastic garbage bag filled with something heavy, going by how her arms were shaking from the strain. She stopped in front of him and took a moment to catch her breath, setting the bag with a clank on a metal trash bin that had been chained to the wall.

"I found gun shells, large caliber and quite a few of the actual bullets." She informed showing him the contents of the bag.

Large calibur was right...fifty cal to be exact and judging from the bullets and shells...a machine gun, maybe a mini gun. He was pretty sure that the bullets were modified hollow points. You fill up a hollow point bullet and you can blow a complete chunk out of whatever it hits...a very painful way to die and it explained the insane amount of blood in the water.

"Holy shit...he was shot, wasn't he, in the back? He was shot...in the back...with a fucking fifty calibur mini gun...who the fuck can walk away from that...and how?" He asked pretty sure of the event but not the survival.

His sister looked at him with those blasted older eyes and nodded solemnly.

"Poseidon...he was protecting her. I'm sure of it." She answered quietly looking down at their feet.

"Does Poseidon carry some kind of fob watch?" He asked suddenly, only just now remembering that it was in his hand.

Her head popped up faster than he could blink, her eyes wide.

"Yes...yes _he...they_ do. Hook and Poseidon share the same watch because they share the same body. Their marks are the silver hook and blue trident respectively." She answered in a rush.

"Hook?" He echoed his voice skeptical.

Anna scowled at him which only made him laugh because she looked like a drowned kitten trying to be a mighty tiger. He wasn't really doubting her because if Hook was real, then it would explain why his sister had been so pushy about him growing on him.

"Look, I don't know all the details but yes, there is a man with two souls inside him. The first is Killian Jones aka Poseidon. The second is James Hook aka The Captain. The man that we spoke to earlier was Hook." She explained glaring at him.

"Seriously? Hook? Okay...that would explain this then." He replied showing her the black fob watch depicting the trident on one side and the hook on the other.

"Oh my god...it's true. This is a world where the Blood Guard exists. I wasn't really sure…" She started but stopped, taking the watch from him like it was the most precious thing in the world, "It's heavier than I thought it would be. My god...this is really happening, right? This isn't a dream, right?"

Will was surprised that she was asking those questions. She had believed all these years and now there was proof and she was suddenly doubting everything that she believed in so adamantly. He reached into his pocket, his fingers grazing the blue box but he didn't pull it out...not yet.

"No...you're not dreaming. You're too fucking cold and wet for that, dearie." He sassed and the reaction was instant.

She smacked his arm with her free hand, only to shake it like it stung. He smiled, a chuckle escaping his lips, which earned him another smack. His face became serious and she went still, her amethyst eyes watching him curiously.

"I believe you...this time for real, so you can't start doubting now." He stated his tone full of certainty and belief.

Her eyes became sad and distant like all the life was being drained out of her.

"But there's no proof...no proof that she was here. We only know that Poseidon and Hook were here...fighting against the Cabal, but there's no sign of her and I was so sure she was here. Maybe...maybe I was just wishing that she would be here. It's been so long...i can barely remember her at all.

I know that she has short dark blonde hair and forest green eyes, that she was short and got annoyed when someone left out that extra half inch. She was originally overweight but she had lost like seventy pounds because of her custodian job, but i can't remember her voice.

I remember a lot of her stories and almost all of our adventures in real life but my memories are fading...i can't even remember her face...even in my dreams...everything is blurred except for her eyes.

I can't even remember her scent or how it felt to hug her. Everything is slipping away. I had it all written down once but that bastard tossed every bit of it into the fucking fire place because I refused to obey him.

All those years, all those memories and thoughts and emotions...turned to ash. I know she's real, Will, but I'm afraid…" Anna rambled her voice choking with emotion.

His heart ached...his sister had been suffering, dealing with all of this on her own for so long...her memories being erased by time and her efforts to preserve them destroyed by their father while their mother had been in the hospital. His fingers wrapped around the blue police box and he withdrew it from his pocket.

"Amethyst…" He started getting her attention instantly, "...you're afraid that with your memories gone...you could walk right past her and not even know it was her."

His younger sibling started sobbing as she nodded her head in confirmation. He took the fob watch from her and pocketed it before taking her now empty hand and placing his closed fist on top of her palm.

"Even if you can't remember what she looks like or sounds like, if all of that fades away...it doesn't mean that it has for her." He began and he cut her off when she tried to respond, "There are some things so precious, so valuable...that even if the mind doesn't remember, the heart always will...or in her case...I think she might want her soul back."

He opened his fist and placed the Tardis pendant in her palm then removed his hand so she could see what it was. Two decades of waiting...waiting to see that smile again and he got something so much more powerful.

His sister was crying tears of joy, relief written all over her face. The smile on her face was so bright that it was like its own sun. She started laughing and sobbing at the same time...a lifetime of absolute faith in someone that by all rights should not exist...it finally paid off.

She clutched the pendant tightly in her fist before bulldozing her brother to the ground, the water splashing away from the impact loudly. Anna clung to her older brother, all her emotions spilling out, and he just wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and for the first time in his life..._he felt like he had done something right...that he could finally say that he was her big brother...that he was actually worthy of that title._

He was never going to doubt his baby sister ever again. Even if she couldn't tell him everything, he would just take it on blind faith. He owed her a lifetime of apologies and he honestly didn't know how he could ever atone for all the mistakes he had made, but he was going to do some research.

Many of Anna's earlier stories had been about Artz's insane plotline for _The Star Chronicles._ She had spoken at length about several members of the _Prism Guard_ and _The Bladeworks_. If he remembered correctly, both were connected to the Blood Guard which she has mentioned a few times tonight.

The Blood Guard were supposed to have a very long history. Maybe he could find some proof of that...piece together fragments of their history all across time. It was one hell of a daunting task but he had a feeling that it would not only help his sister preserve her memories but perhaps unlock some of his own.

He wasn't sure how, but he was somehow connected to Poseidon and possibly Hook too. He remembered that watch clearly and that watch belonged to Poseidon and Hook. He had a feeling that he and his sister were more connected to the Guard than they thought they were.

There was something in their past that he couldn't remember and he doubted that Anna remembered either, going by her reaction to the watch. He had to find out. He needed to know, but most importantly...he needed to _find the wench..._Hook was still an arrogant asshole though.


	5. Chapter 4: Time and Memory

Chapter Four: Time and Memory

Amethyst Anna Zimmerman…that was who she was now. She was born the second of February…exactly three and a half weeks after the eighth of January. Why are these two dates important? The obvious was that one of them was her birthday, but what of the other date?

To her brother, Doctor William Liam Zimmerman, these two dates were connected. They marked the beginning and the end of three and a half week period of time that was a complete and total torment to her brother. This period of time was when Anna suffered from chronic night terrors...the memories of a life that ended tragically.

The psychiatrists told her mother that these dreams were likely a side effect from the failed abortion and subsequent beatings. They wanted to put Anna through a series of tests, studies, and the testing of several medications that might alleviate or eradicate the condition, but her mother refused on the grounds that her daughter was not going to be treated like a lab rat.

The irony was that should anyone had asked Anna why the eighth of January was the beginning of these nightmares, they would have undoubtedly locked her in the psych ward. For her answer was that January the Eighth was not only the birthday of a woman from a parallel universe...it was also the day she died.

In another world, she was Anastasia Emrys Lanaria, the adopted younger sibling of Artz Gallifreya Lanaria. They did not have a blood relation but held a bond deeper than words or actions could ever hope to express.

They had endured many hardships; family drama, extremely low self esteem, depression, anxiety, and one of them suffered from what was diagnosed as ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The other had a liver transplant when she was a kid and was taking anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life.

Both had suffered for over two thirds of their lives; loneliness, sorrow, pain, and all the curve balls that life would constantly throw at them. Then one day, Anna came across a fan fiction site with quite the abundance of literature and for a time, she was content. Sifting through each category and finding something to read...being impressed by some and sent spiraling into a depression by others.

This was her life; get up, go to work, come home and read, only for the cycle to repeat until she got paid. Then she would get up, go to work, cash her check, go grocery shopping, come home and read more fan fiction. It was a constant cycle of work and reading.

She tried her hand at writing her own story, but it tanked fantastically well. Between the bad spelling/sucky grammar/poor punctuation and the fact that everything she wrote just felt completely shallow...like there was nothing underneath, no underlying meaning or connection… she quickly despaired and almost gave up reading fan fiction entirely.

It was completely random...a serendipitous event of epic proportions. This was the moment when everything changed and she would find something...no, someone …that would completely upturn her entire life, shake it like a snow globe, and make her into someone that she never thought she could be.

What was this life altering moment? A story...just another story, right? It was different from the others because right from the start, Anna had been completely submerged into the world that was being rebuilt from the original series. She had been so enthralled with it that she had finished over a dozen chapters in a single sitting, when it normally took her a few days...she barely read a chapter sometimes before wandering off to do something else.

She had reached the end of what had been published thus far and the sound she made was not entirely human. She left a review on the last chapter and added the story and its author to her favorites and following lists.

And thus...the cycle began again...or so she thought. She came home the next day from work, logged on to the site and was surprised to see that someone had sent her a PM, private message. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when she saw who it was from...Artz Lanaria, the author of the story that had completely captured her into its world.

This was the start of something brand new and she didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of a friendship that would define them both and create an unbreakable bond of love and loyalty between them.

One simple message, thanking her for reviewing...asking what she liked and disliked about the story. She answered honestly and she expected it to be the end...she had been a bit blunt about some things and a little fan girlish for others. She wanted to face palm so bad because she sounded like a kid on a sugar high with a split personality.

She went to bed that night feeling like she had ruined any chances of a possible pen pal. Boy was she in for a surprise. The next morning, she got up but went to her computer, her heart racing in both excitement and dread and almost squealed...and would have but it would have woken up her family.

Right before her eyes was a reply to her response and it was...for a lack of a better term...LONG...and filled with a shit ton of vagueish spoilers for the story while simultaneously pointing her towards the woman's other stories...which admittedly she had forgotten to do.

Upon discovering that her current favorite author was a fan of the longest running science fiction show in televisual history, Doctor Who… Anna took a chance and told Artz about her story idea about a half Timelord/ half angel hybrid.

So she wasn't very original and she hadn't put much thought into the history of the angel like species and she was so sure that Artz would respond harshly and with a great deal of criticism, being thoroughly offended by her amateur attempt at writing.

Wrong!

Instead of reacting the way everyone else had or just saying they were not interested...Artz...well...she kinda ran away with the damn thing! The explosion of ideas, concepts, full blown scenes...hell, full on chapters that came from this woman!!!?

Anna was completely floored and she was kind of floundering about, trying to cope with the flood of information and imagination. It was all so sudden and it was quite frankly the most bizarre and outrageous thing to ever happen to her.

Within a matter of weeks, Anna's story The Lost Angel had gone from being a sloppily painted kid's drawing to a fucking masterpiece of literary art and it didn't stop there! There was a whole different story behind Artz's character that was interwoven throughout the entirety of the series...a story of a woman from a parallel world that was given the chance to save that which defined her, The Doctor.

Her story, however, was sad and bittersweet. Her character, The Paladin...Defender of the Faith… she was alone. She loved the Doctor so much that she sacrificed everything for him; her home, her family, her world...even her humanity. She became a Time Lord, a very rare and powerful one at that...a Silver Regen.

She was the last of the Timelords to be granted the power of silver regeneration. An energy that was not only a lower frequency, meaning that she did not undergo a complete physical change, but harmonized with the raw power and might of the Time Vortex itself.

Most would believe that a character like this would be a Mary Sue, the perfect person for everything and can do no wrong.

Wrong!

The Paladin was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Her fatal flaw...was herself. She was kind...too kind...for a time, she and the Doctor had been in love, but she knew...she knew that she was not the Doctor's destined mate...The Angel, she was the one that he needed most.

Her flaw which is herself...she stepped back...she helped them find each other after their home planet of Gallifrey had been destroyed. She let them believe that she had died in the Time War, that she burned with Gallifrey...but she couldn't stay away from them.

She took on the name of Freya, in honor of Gallifrey's largest moon, Gallifreya. She had regenerated into a blonde when traditionally she was a variation of red or auburn. She was in plain sight, she spoke to them, traveled with them for a time, and even had gotten both of them to fall in love with her...which was not intentional.

She eventually let them go, married the immortal champion of Earth… Captain Jack Harkness...and discovered not long after that due to her connection with the Time Vortex...she could never have children. The only way she could conceive was with another Timelord and one thought she was dead and the other was crazier than the Mad Hatter.

She chose to follow them through history, every adventure...saving so many that would have been lost if she hadn't; innocent people, companions, even a dalek/human hybrid which became a doctor himself and was happily married to Chantho, another person the Paladin had saved, and they had three kids with a fourth on the way.

This story was so much more impactful to Anna than her own. She cried so many times because The Paladin kept going, kept giving, kept saving...but no one was saving her. Everyone was transitional, no one stayed or was ripped away. The Paladin was destroying herself just so that the man that defined her soul would have less blood on his hands.

It hit her one day...why The Paladin's story touched her so deeply… because it was her story. Artz wasn't just writing some original character that she had made up on a whim. She was writing herself into the story...a self insert if there ever was one. Anna realized that this is what caught her attention, this deep emotional connection that affected everyone that read her stories.

Writing fan fiction was more to Artz than a simple hobby...even more than the coping mechanism that it had become for Anna...it was her heart. Artz poured her heart into every word, every line. Her soul was like a star to Anna, so bright and warm, wonderful and beautiful.

Reality bit her in the ass though when Artz had said that she was nothing special, that she was just being her, that she wasnt important at all...and that broke Anna's heart to pieces. How could someone so amazing, so brilliant...a genius...how could she say that about herself? How could she believe that nothing she did made a difference and that she was surprised that Anna had stuck around so long?

This lit a fire so blazing hot that Anna made it her life's mission to make this woman believe that she was a fucking genius...that she had an imagination that could only have come straight from God's own head. She was going to show this woman just how much she had affected her life.

Her life wasn't a constant cycle of work and reading anymore. She had gone from being the shy, quiet type that didn't want to cause waves...to literally pass through life as unnoticed as possible...to being the person she was now. She had changed so much that everybody had noticed.

She stuck out. Why...because she was shining with her own light now. Why...because one single person showed her that it was a good thing to be kind, to help even if they hated you for it because down the line, those very same people came back and thanked her for her kindness.

She was more out going, determined … tiny bit head strong and perhaps a wee bit too much sass...but she was kind, open, fair, and understanding. Artz taught her to listen because when it comes down to it, that's what a person really needs. They want someone to listen, to know that their problems and worries, their successes and dreams...they were being heard, being acknowledged.

This one thing changes a person's entire outlook on life, good or bad. The point Artz had taught her was that everyone needed someone. A friend, a sounding board, someone to rant to, to scream with just so they could release the pressure...it only takes one...and one is enough.

This simple concept had defined Anna's purpose in life...to be that someone for Artz, but as time went by...Artz faded away. Each new message she received, Anna could see it, feel it. Artz was losing the battle within herself, the constant pressure of two decades of trials, drama, stress, and silent tears...she buckled.

Artz's heart shattered and she became what Anna had once been until she stopped replying completely. Two years of nothing but that didn't stop her from believing. Anna believed that Artz was still fighting, still rising again and again...but one day, she would rise but it would be nothing but a shell...a shell compelled to rise because of a promise, the promise of the Doctor.

Never cruel or cowardly, never give up, never give in.

The Doctor made this promise when he chose his name and Artz shared that promise and his name. For you see, Artz is German for Doctor. It's an alternative spelling given that the primary version is Arzt but the lesser used version is Artz. Upon learning the meaning of her name, she too made a promise.

Hate is always foolish and love is always wise. Always try to be nice but never fail at being kind. To never be cruel and to never be cowardly, to never give up and to never give in. Doctor, I will never let you go.

This was her promise but what Artz failed to realize was that Anna had made her own promise as well, every line was the same except at the end.

Artz, I will never let you go.

It was this promise that stirred Anna into action. She spent the better part of that two year silence, sifting through their insanely long private message thread. She scoured each message and picked out every tiny little detail that Artz had told her.

Why...because Artz was her Doctor and just as Rose was willing to burn herself out with the time vortex just to save his life, Anna spent almost two years piecing the puzzle that was her Doctor together...and all of that effort was for nothing.

She couldn't figure out exactly where Artz was and that was killing her. Her Doctor needed her and she wasn't there...but she refused to give up. She reached out to the fellow reviewers of Artz's works. Most of them called her a creepy stalker and that her Doctor had been right to drop her like a bad habit.

She couldn't give up...she couldn't and that faith, that belief...it paid off. There were two individuals willing to help. The first was a young man named Erin Clarence Oswald and Anna took that as a fucking sign because he was literally the male version of Clara Oswald, same hair and eyes, same complexion and same stubborn attitude as the Clara that jumped into the Doctor's time stream.

This man became her best friend and he helped her get into contact with the second individual willing to help. Neither of them expected that this other person was, in fact...the elder brother of the woman they were searching for.

The problem was convincing him to divulge any information about his baby sister. His wife had recently been killed by a drunk driver and he had been close to killing himself...but then he found his sister's stories and it stopped him from doing anything too rash.

He wanted to help but he also didn't want his sister to be hurt anymore and considering that she had met these two online, he was going to make damn certain that they were on the level, completely trust worthy, and solely driven by their need to help Artz.

This took up the latter half of the second year and only a few days prior to his sister's birthday, he relented. He told them exactly where to find her but to wait until her birthday. She would be at work, away from the family, and there wouldn't be any needless drama about the whole meeting them online thing.

Anna freely admits that she glomped the man...right down to the floor. She cried tears of joy and relief, thanking him profusely and she swore that once she was with Artz that she would never let her be alone again. Erin seconded that but also agreed to keep Anna from going too far to help her Doctor...she had already run herself into the ground on multiple occasions just to get this far.

And as promised, on the unsuspecting woman's birthday, the duo surprised her. Anna first and then Erin swooping in to rescue Artz from Anna...at least that was how it was supposed to go.

"Petrichor!" Anna shouted getting a lot of nasty looks from the people visiting the rest area where her Doctor currently worked.

A woman with dark blonde hair was nearby cleaning and her head popped up at the word.

"The smell of dust after the rain." Came the automatic response from said blonde.

She turned to look for the origin and her eyes landed on Anna. Seeing her for the first time, Anna was actually surprised. From the way that her Doctor had described herself, she had expected someone three sizes larger and kinda pudgy, waddling about like a duck. She had been called Wobbles when she was in high school.

What she got was a woman, albeit short at five feet and three and half inches tall, but to Anna...she was beautiful. Her forest green eyes were exhausted but she could see that Artz was still in there.

Why...because in typical Artz fashion, she raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Really, Anna?'. She almost laughed but kept her composure while waving her over. She actually saw the woman visibly sigh and she snorted slightly because it had been such a blatant Kakashi response… they were fans of the Copy Ninja of the Leaf so she was relieved to see it.

Artz put down the the grabber and bucket she had been using to clean up litter and walked over to the nearly vibrating Anna, curiosity and weariness dancing in her eyes. Anna smirked and did the only thing that wouldn't put Artz on the defensive.

"Doctor." She stated clearly.

Artz hesitated for a moment before a playful mischief entered her forest green orbs.

"Captain." She replied expectantly.

"Good to see you." Anna continued a smile tugging at her lips.

"And you. Same as ever. Although have you had work done?" Artz asked her forest green eyes shifting to a darker color.

"You can talk." Anna quipped back noting that the darker color was an indicator that Artz was actually having a positive emotion rather a negative.

"Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know it was me?" The blonde responded the curiosity seeping into her tone.

Uh oh...she has sparked her Doctor's curiosity...her smirk got bigger and her posture became a bit more sassy. Yep...her Doctor was still her Doctor, battered and worn but still very much intact.

"The police box kind of gives it away." Anna started her eyes flickering to Artz's Tardis pendant, mainly silver with some copper showing...dingy, scratched and no longer blue...the state of her Doctor was reflected in her pendant, "I've been following you a long time."

The reaction to those words were like a sucker punch to the gut for Anna. Artz's eyes filled with loneliness and sorrow...her heart was breaking behind her eyes...but it quickly vanished behind the mask of sass and sarcasm...a mask Anna could see right through.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here…" Artz started her face forming a small smirk but it did not reach her eyes.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Anna answered almost automatically… damn, Artz barely spoke a sentence and she was already pulling the new Anna back to the surface.

There was a pause...not a long one, but enough of one to see over a dozen different emotions flicker through her eyes and making Anna wonder what was going on in that head of hers. Then she smiled and she was rendered speechless. Artz's smile was so warm, heartfelt, and genuine. Sweet Menti Celesti...she really was her very own star...and she was shining.

"Definitely Yuna." The blonde stated her tone holding nothing but certainty...there was no doubt at all.

Anna really wanted to cry...she recognized her. Less than two minutes and she recognized her. She wasn't honestly sure about how she was supposed to feel but giddy and sassy were pretty high on the list at the moment.

"You had to have seen this coming, Doctor." Anna commented cementing the fact that she was well...her.

Why? Seriously...you could read this woman like an open book. Her eyes gave her away and she was feeling guilt...probably for leaving her hanging for over two years. Honestly...she had her work cut for herself. Her Doctor was worse off than she thought which was verified by the woman's next words.

"Actually...no, I didn't." Artz commented quietly.

"Explain." Anna demanded like a certain Scottish girl from Leadworth.

It took her a bit to get started, caught between guilt and uncertainty, but when she got passed the first few lines...well she was definitely Artz because she word vomited for the next two and a half hours and the only reason it stopped was because her boss interrupted and was writing Artz up for not doing her work.

Anna wanted to intervene, to tell the bitch to go fuck herself, because she didn't need this job. Erin had pulled some strings at the observatory that his family operated...upon hearing that their son had finally found the girl that he never stopped talking about, they pretty much demanded that she come and work for them.

He tried to explain that she only graduated high school, had no college degrees, and her work experience was limited to bell ringing for the Salvation Army and working as a custodian at a rest area, but his parents had shocked him into fucking orbit when they told him what position they wanted her to have.

An astronomer...they wanted her to be the one looking through the multi million dollar telescope and watching the stars. When he asked why, they simply asked him a question.

How else are we supposed to make her happy?

And thus ensued a rather face flushing moment for Erin...because his parents were not dumb, oblivious, or blind. They were well aware that their son was in love with Artz and that was quite the accomplishment due to their wealthy status. They wanted to do everything they could to help her...mainly in the hopes that without all the drama and stress, she might figure out that she loves him too.

It was a moot point because when it comes down to it...its her decision and to her surprise, Artz was...well she was Artz and in typical Artz fashion, she informed the supervisor that she was an utter disgrace of a human being and that as of that moment, she was no longer an employee there.

Artz breezed by her still sputtering supervisor, collected her things from the office and hung up the keys. She walked back out as her ex boss stormed up to her and grabbed her arm, squeezing it tightly...so much so that Artz let out a painful yelp before quickly silenced by her former boss who then started dragging her back towards the office.

Artz demanded to be let go and refused to put up with this treatment. So she S-I-N-G'ed herself out of the woman's grasp...eternal gratitude to Miss Congeniality...but she didn't get far because she was caught again near the end of the side walk and backhanded across the right cheek, sending her down to the ground in a daze.

A lot of cursing and foul language came from her ex boss as she struck her again and again...fortunately, Anna had blitzed her ass back over to Erin's car at the end of the lot and she quickly informed him of the situation. He ordered her to get in the car and not come out. She was going to argue but then heard Artz crying out in pain, fear hitting her full force.

She did as he told her to and got in the car. She watched from the window as her Doctor was being slapped around...but there was nothing she could do and she hated herself for being so ill prepared. Her eyes widened as she watched her best friend tackle the older woman off of Artz, forcing her attention on him rather on the blonde girl fighting to remain conscious.

Anna could safely say that she was impressed. Erin was a fucking badass and literally handed the woman her own ass without actually having to hit her. Beyond his initial tackle, he didn't attack her. He did, however, make her attack herself...mainly by off putting her balance and the residual kinetic force had to go somewhere.

It took about seven minutes for the older woman to finally knock herself out, having run into the pole of the sign that said keep off the grass...and where did she land? On the grass and right into some dog shit...sadly it didn't get on her face but it went down her shirt, having slid into it.

Anna watched as Erin retrieved Artz's things and gently picked her up, making certain to cradle her head against his neck so she wouldn't irritate her injuries. He placed her in the back seat of the car as gently as he could, asking Anna to sit in the back so that she could keep Artz's head from moving too much.

Anna scurried to comply and she almost started crying when she saw the deep red marks on the right side of her face which was quickly turning a purplish black and her right eye was beginning to swell shut. Erin dropped Artz's stuff into the front passenger seat and got in the driver's seat.

He started the engine and pressed the call button on the steering wheel. He called his family and told them what happened and they told him to take her to the hospital and leave the ex boss/bitch to them. That's when Anna learned that Erin was filthy rich and his family had their own security force… mind blown.

The woman known as Amethyst Zimmerman sighed heavily. Meeting Artz that first time was one of the few remaining memories she had left and even that was incomplete. She doesn't really remember what happened after that...not until Artz got a good look at her new home and the look on her face when Erin's parents told her what her job would be.

Anna remembered her Doctor actually crying and apologizing to them for being so emotional. Things got blurry after that too. Specific memories with particularly strong emotional cores...those were the memories left to her now. So many of the little things, smaller details, or trivial junk was just...gone.

Her face...she couldn't remember her face. Only her eyes and sometimes she forgot what color her hair was and it took like twenty minutes for her to come up with it. She had started jotting notes down and they were all over their flat.

She was surprised that Will hadn't said anything about it but given just how many break ups he has had in the last four months...seventeen ...seventeen women dumped him. They dumped him. Why...because they thought he was cheating on them...with her. Look...she loved her brother...but not like that.

She wasn't entirely certain when it came to Artz though. Why...because the bond they shared went beyond words, beyond actions...she looked at the little blue box in her hand… beyond realities. It was impossible. It's funny...they used to joke around and say that if something was impossible then Artz was definitely involved.

It's true though...absolutely true. In her hands was the soul of her Doctor. Two decades of waiting...her faith never wavering...until tonight. For a brief moment...a part of her old self had slipped through...the woman that was repressed and had the self esteem of a chick pea which was being polite.

That woman was still there. Had it not been for her brother...no, she couldn't think about that right now. Especially with the condition her brother was in. She had managed to get him home, but he was exhausted. She knew why of course and she felt really shitty too. It wasn't fair...but it was necessary. She could only hope that he would forgive her one day.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the sound of glass shattering and she went to investigate. It was multiple objects that had broken; the mirror on the wall, all the light bulbs in the room, even the window had broken but it had stayed intact. It was splintered with cracks...very much like how a phone would spider web if it hit at the right angle.

She retrieved the dust pan and broom, cleaning up all the glass shards and subsequently replacing all the light bulbs. The window proved to be a challenge but with a bit of duct tape and a broken down cardboard box, she at least made certain that it wouldn't fall on her brother.

Said brother was lying in his bed, his body and limbs all twisted up in the sheets and blankets. His breathing was quick and shallow, his skin was like fire and he was sweating profusely. He was whimpering in pain but his eyes were wide open.

She sat down on the bed and wiped the sweat away with a damp cloth, her amethyst hued eyes never leaving his eyes. His eyes were normally a variation of hazel, ranging from grey to green to brown but were mainly green with the area around the pupil being an orange then yellow and it flowed out to a mixture of green and brown.

Most people mistook his eye color as either light brown, forest green, or a deep grey, but at this moment, his eyes were very similar to the color hers were earlier that night. When she feels a particularly strong emotion or when she actively uses her...gift...her eyes would shift to either a liquid silver or a molten silver, depending on what caused it.

Her brother's eyes were currently silver, but it was neither liquid or molten...his eyes were very much how she imagined they would be for her character in a OUAT story she had been writing with Artz. She couldn't remember if they had ever settled on what to actually call it...mirrored sight, fractured sight, or shattered sight.

Seeing it for herself, she would pick shattered sight because that was what her brother's eyes looked like at this moment...a shattered mirror, shining like it was reflecting light. She couldn't call it glowing...no her eyes did that...his just shined.

It's something he has always had and it accompanied his migraines, but this time was different. She recognized the signs...the very same ones that her brother said she had exhibited during her so called prophetic dreams.

She couldn't see the future and she couldn't see the present either. What she saw was the past...her dream about Light...that event had happened several hours before she was even asleep. The only reason why she had jumped out of bed the way she did was because her mind had already calculated just how far Poseidon could travel with a freshly regenerated Artz in tow.

The alley where they had encountered the military convoy and the man her sister called Her Captain was just outside her calculations, meaning that they had most likely walked the last mile which didn't actually line up from a time line perspective, but given what her Doctor had just gone through...it was highly likely that she had attempted to shut down her emotions to focus on survival.

Anna doubted that neither Hook or Poseidon would allow that and they probably had to resort to some pretty drastic measures, considering the turmoil the brunette had felt from her Doctor. The problem was she was pretty certain that her sister in all ways except blood was no longer a virgin.

Why did she think this? Hook...plain and simple. From their short interaction with each other earlier tonight, she was absolutely certain that out of the two...he was more emotional than Poseidon. Her reasoning is the fact that he sent her away through what she was calling the waterway. His first concern was removing her from the line of fire.

She doubted that Poseidon would have done that given what she had experienced in her dream. He seemed...colder than Hook… more grounded and in control, whereas Hook was more passionate like a blazing inferno of emotion. He didn't hide how he felt but he wouldn't say it either, whereas Poseidon tried to mask his feelings and focus on the task at hand... like a river, following the path of least resistance.

It was ironic, so incredibly ironic. Poseidon was the mythical god of the ocean and true to the name, he was a water elemental...but Hook...he was just different. Hell he reminded her of Erin, what little she could remember about him.

When it came to Artz, he was expressive, honest...too much so sometimes, passionate...especially when it came to her happiness, but he never told her he loved her...at least when she was conscious. She could count on one hand how many times he told her that he loved her and that number was four.

The first three times...well bad shit happened afterwards and he became so fucking paranoid that he couldn't bring himself to say it at all. The last time he told her...Anna almost started crying...the last time he told her was the night before...before they discovered...that the stars were…

Sweet Menti Celesti...two decades and it still felt like yesterday. Her nightmares didn't help either but sadly were a necessary evil. She refocused on her brother when she heard glass beginning to rattle.

"Why…" He started gaining her attention in an instant, "Why does he look like me?"

The purple eyed girl audibly gasped, an image flashing through her mind. It was Light, but how...he died… didn't he? Yet...he was there...he was there with Artz and she was covered with blood...Poseidon's blood?

She was shaking, her entire body felt like a live wire...no, more like the time she had accidentally electrocuted herself because she had forgotten that the wrapper that the roast beef sandwich had been in was thin aluminium and the microwave went berserk and she received a very nasty shock...except this time, it felt like a thousand times worse.

As her breathing evened out, her mind began to clear and she analyzed the image. Were it not for the eyes, she would swear that she was looking at her brother. The man with her brother's face had the most gorgeous eyes she had ever seen...electric blue for starters but they possessed the same shattered look as Will's.

So there was an electric blue variation to the shattered sight...how enlightening? Even in her head that was a bad pun...totally cringe worthy. Her brother began to groan in pain, rolling onto his side and burying his face into her thigh...like he was trying to block out the light. She belatedly realized the comparison and had to stop herself from face palming.

She brushed through her brother's brown hair, feeling a tingle every time. It was when she pulled away slightly that she noticed the sparks zapping at her fingers as if demanding her to come back. She did so and the sparks disappeared.

Okay...her day..uh night just got weirder. The only thing she could do was wait...either for her brother to go to sleep or him pulling an Anna and running out the door. She sighed… this was gonna be a long night.


	6. Chapter 5: Light and Sound

**Chapter 5: Light and Sound**

The profiler known as William Liam Zimmerman was in a fair amount of pain. His entire body felt like a live wire, but it was his eyes that hurt the most. He was not aware of the fact that the irises of his normally hazel green eyes were a shattered silver, but he was most definitely aware of the countless images he was seeing all at once.

Every fragment of his shattered sight depicted different places, different people, different events, and even different moments in time. So many and not a single one of them had any audio. It was like a silent film or watching television after hitting the mute button. He was trying to make sense of it all which made his head scream in agony and he could hear things breaking around him.

His body calmed a little when his baby sister, Anna, took a seat next to him and was brushing through his hair in a soothing manner. The problem was that he couldn't see her. None of the fragments showed his current environment, but he was pretty certain that they had at least made it home so he was probably in his bedroom. His mind became engulfed in the steady stream of silent scenes.

_A man with a striking resemblance to Killian Jones from Once Upon A Time stood before him...her? He was seeing through her eyes, Artz's eyes...but why? The question disappeared as a new one made itself known. Why did the man before him have pure black eyes? Both the pupils and the irises were the same color like a mirrored black. It reminded him of Riddick but then recalled a movie called _The Shadow _starring Alec Baldwin. The Shadow character had eyes similar to the man before him...a mirrored obsidian?_

Will grunted as a wave of pain lanced through his brain and the sounds of glass shaking reached his ears. What was causing that? Was the storm getting worse but hadn't the rain lightened up earlier?

_He...she sat on her legs, tears streaming down her face. She looked up at the darkening sky and Will watched the sun slowly begin to disappear. Was it an eclipse but it wasn't like anything he had ever seen before? Her lips began to move but no sound came out but he knew that she was singing...the Davy Jones theme? Why that song...he could feel that this song meant a great deal to her and yet it seemed to be calling out to somewhere, to someone?_

Several pops reached his ears. It sounded like multiple light bulbs had just blown. Was there some kind of power surge? He made a mental note to get some surge protectors. It would be a whole heck of a lot cheaper than having to replace multiple bulbs and appliances on a regular basis.

_He was still wondering why this guy looked like him...Light. That was the name running through her mind. This man was the one known as the Second Captain and his power had something to do with electricity because Amy had mentioned that he was called the _Lightning Fang. _He was trying to get Artz off the ground. Sweet Menti Celesti...there was so much blood...Poseidon and Hook's blood which meant that this moment occurred after the events that had occurred in the alleyway._

She didn't know that they were alive, her god of the sea and her captain. They had survived the attack but she didn't know that. He wanted so badly to tell her, to give her some hope that she might see them again one day.

_She was so angry and so much pain too, but he was startled when her emotions started fading away like they were being shoved into a box. Was she shutting off her heart like Anna had told him about earlier? The black eyed man shoved her into a wall and Will had a pretty good idea of where this was heading if the look in his eyes was any indication._

He had been right...the man, he had to make her feel again so he took her virginity. Now that had been a very strange experience for him, but he had felt it when Artz responded. His sister was right...you cannot rape the willing and once her heart was back on, she was most definitely willing. Artz...she truly cared for this man, her beloved Captain. She responded to him on a level that the profiler didn't know existed...so deep and raw and powerful yet somehow fragile, vulnerable, and an unshakeable trust.

_Will was surprised by this fragment. The man that looked like him, Light, he was also making love to Artz but why? Wasn't she and Hook an item? Why would she allow this? He then remembered what Anna had told her about The Star Chronicles. Artz's character gave her love both emotionally and physically to whom she deemed worthy of it_ _and he could feel it deep within her heart...she loved all three of them; Light, Poseidon, and Hook...they were precious to her despite the fact that she had only just me them. She had such faith in them...remarkable._

Another wave of pain cascaded through his brain but this time it felt like his entire body was being zapped with a pretty high voltage of electricity. It was coming from her yet not...Light? Was he somehow channeling part of his power through Artz and because he was somehow connected to her, he was somehow feeling the effect too?

_He let out a scream of pain as a knife sliced through Artz's skin from her left hip through the valley of her breasts and up to her right shoulder, causing the Tardis pendant to be ripped from her neck and flung in the direction of the fire escape. That was why it had landed on his head because the chain had gotten stuck on one of the railings._

The sound of glass shattering reached his ears and a squeak of surprise erupted from his sister as well. The moment she was no longer by his side, the pain intensified. It was getting harder to breathe, to think, but his emotions were going berserk.

_He felt something slip from his hand...her hand and she went back to get it...the fob watch. Wait when did she get that? She went back for it, scooping it up quickly and rushing back to the pirate but then she was suddenly spun around and Will could feel it...every impact of every bullet being slammed into Poseidon's back. _

_Both of them fell to the ground, the water sloshing away from them with her on the bottom and Poseidon on top. Will could feel the man's blood pouring all over her, hot and cold mixing together, but then her heart shattered. He said something to her and that's what broke her heart. The man lifted up slightly so he could look into their eyes...the mirrored obsidian again, Hook...yes, this was the Fourth Captain, he was sure of it._

_The look in his eyes...he loved her, Hook loved Artz with his entire being, she was everything to him. Will managed to catch most of what he was trying to convey through lip reading. The Captain was sending her away through something he called the waterway, promising her that despite the brat's pessimism, he was going to live for her just as he had promised earlier. He made a vow, swearing that he would find her again._

_The Fourth Captain kissed her lips briefly but holding so many unexpressed emotions and desires. She slipped beneath the surface of the water, reaching out to him, the fob watch wrapped loosely around her wrist. His eyes were the last thing she saw before it became too dark to see, but she refused to surrender, to give up...Will was so proud of her but also taken aback by the true depth and ferocity of her heart._

_She fought against the pull of the waterway that was trying so desperately to send her away. The watch once on her wrist became stuck on something and falling off her wrist entirely. She cried out, her heart breaking anew as she was drawn deeper into the waterway again. He felt her panic when she saw a man being sucked down by the current. His leg appeared to be stuck, the chain of the fob watch wrapped around his ankle and grate._

_It was him! That was when his leg got stuck in the drainage grate! He was drowning! He felt it when Artz's resolve kicked in, the desire to save a life giving her the strength to rebel against the waterway...__**just one life, please, let me save just one life**__. Artz...she swam against the current, fighting to reach him. __**Please...just one life...please, let me save him**__...she was fighting so hard and just for him. __**I have to reach him, I have to save him, I can't lose anyone else...please...**__he wanted to cry._

_**Light...Poseidon...Captain...no more...I refuse to let anyone else die tonight! He needs you...you have to save him... Now Reach Damn It!**_ _Her arms wrapped around his body, her front pressing against his back. Her hands reached for the chain and deftly untangled it. She pulled back...she had actually dragged him away. He thought that he had just pushed away, but it was actually her. She saved him...his Artz saved him._

_He felt it when exhaustion slammed into her full force, she was barely clinging to consciousness...__**wait, please...I want to see him, I want to see the face of the one life I managed to save**__. She reached upwards, the fob watch floating upwards as well. Her finger grazed his hand and saw himself look down...__**William...it's William...Durga...I saved him...William!**_ _She tried so hard to reach him as he reached down into the water to reach her. Her vision darkened as she was dragged down into the depths of the waterway… __**please … William… stay with me… please… let me stay… I don't want to be alone**__._

The tears flowed from his eyes. He had been so close, they had touched each other for a single moment. He outright sobbed, wanting so desperately to turn back time. He didn't know that it was her and he should have. He was there, he should have tried harder, he should have saved her.

"Artz...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He whispered his tears disrupting the fragments and making everything blurry.

His sister returned to his side, wiping the sweat from his face and attempting to dry the constant stream of tears. His heart screamed in anguish as the sounds of multiple objects shattering reached his ears. He wanted to be there! He wanted to be with her! He wanted to bring her home, to the sister that has waited over two decades, believing when no else did.

"ARTZ!" He screamed loudly, his eyes shining with a light from within.

_"William." Artz whispered softly._

He was shocked. It was the first sound he had heard through this whole thing. Did she hear him? Could they communicate like this? Was it truly possible?

"Let me in...please, Artz. Let me in. I swear I won't leave." He pleaded the tears continued to flow down his face seemingly without end.

_He was thrust back into a fragment or so he thought. This felt different...he could hear the sounds as well as see what was happening. The Second Captain was looking at them with worry filled eyes._

_"Artz?" He questioned returning to her side and taking her face into his hands, "Talk to me, baby doll. Tell me what's happening."_

_"William...I can feel him...inside my head. He called out to me and I answered." She answered a mix of surprise, relief, and joy radiating through their shared link._

_"Baby doll, I know that might seem like a good thing but it's not. It's too soon for him to be connected to you. You haven't even met him yet." Light warned._

_"That's not true. We have met...in the waterway. He was drowning...I saved him. I saved your great nephew's life so what you're trying to say is thank you." She snapped promptly removing herself from his embrace and walking around him, "William, your great uncle is an asshole. When you meet him and you will, please bitch slap him into next week."_

The profiler laughed, a smile appearing on his exhausted face. She was exactly like Anna had described her and so much more. He could feel it; battered and broken yet still full of so much hope and kindness.

"Remarkable." He whispered in awe.

_She giggled._

_"I have no clue what you said but the feeling reminded me of Gabriel from Andromeda." She commented her heart becoming just a tiny bit lighter._

"The Balance of Judgement." He said remembering that particular episode.

He was a fan of Michael Shanks and he played Doctor Daniel Jackson in the Stargate series but he also played Gabriel, the ship's flesh avatar as well as the AI of the Balance of Judgement, a High Guard ship that had gone insane after being alone for so long. He was a bit sad though because she couldn't hear him, just feel him. There was so much he wanted to tell her...especially about Anna.

_"William, it's okay. We'll meet each other again someday and you can tell me everything you want me to know then though I am curious as to how you know me. I was under the impression that you hadn't met me yet or is it me that hasn't...bloody hell, I hate tenses." She replied to his unspoken feelings._

He wanted to smile but a bad feeling was gnawing at his gut. Something was wrong...he could feel it. There was something dangerous nearby.

_"William, what is it? What's wrong?" Artz asked immediately sensing the shift._

_Light appeared in their vision, his body rippling with blue electricity._

_"What's he sensing?" He asked his tone hard and battle ready._

_"I'm not sure...I think we might be in trouble." She answered fear beginning to creep into her heart._

_The Second Captain grabbed her hand, pulling her into a run. It was then that Will realized that it was daytime, overcast like no tomorrow but definitely daytime. His senses spiked as they ran out of the warehouse and towards a nearby alley, but Artz fell along the way, her body beyond exhausted._

_Light rushed back and pulled her to her feet, only for her and Will as well to be utterly shocked when her face, hair, and chest were sprayed with blood. The source of the blood...the Lightning Fang. There was some kind of projectile shoved through his chest. Light looked down at the object before telling her to run, but Artz was too stunned to move._

_The profiler felt everything she was feeling and her emotions were skyrocketing so fast that it was a miracle that she wasn't having a damn heart attack. Before Will could jar her loose from her shell shocked state, the Second Captain was ripped away from her, something silver flying out of his pocket...the projectile being a harpoon...and she could only stare in horror as his body was left dangling in the air._

She was shattering...it hurt...it hurt so much but if he tried to pull back now, she would fall to pieces. He could feel it...he was the only thing holding her together, but she couldn't move because she was losing Light a second time and she couldn't process it, the emotions were too deep, too intense. There had to be some way to help her.

_"Durga...I...I...help him...please...my Light...I can't...not again…" She whispered tears streaming down her face._

The profiler's emotions surged as a dark skinned man dressed in soldier's attire walked forward...the very same man that had utterly petrified his baby sister, that had filled Hook and Poseidon with a shit ton of bullets, that had made her lose Light the first time...it was the same commander. How? How did that bastard find them?

His sister let out a yelp of pain as his body felt like it was being struck by lightning. Lightning? That was it! Part of Light's power had been channeled into her and quite possibly himself. If he could push that power out then it may give the Second Captain enough strength to convert into his elemental form! He survived the first time so he should be able to handle it a second.

_Pain erupted across Artz's body, electric blue sparks forming around her. Will didn't give in, he kept pushing, the sound of the electricity guiding him. The commander shouted out orders to capture her before she could attack, but it was already too late. Artz and William screamed in unison as a giant bolt of electric blue lightning shot out of her body and straight at the barely breathing lightning elemental._

_It collided with him and his entire body shone with light as he fully converted back into his elemental form and he wasted no time charging towards Artz. When he engulfed her, the pain was excruciating. Light whispered that he was about to use something called the Arc Jump and he swore that he would find her again...just as soon as he figured out how to get back to his human form._

_She screamed as Light's power surged through her system and it felt like she was flying through the air. Will heard the sounds of at least seven other Arc Jumps...decoys? Yes so that couldn't find her straight away, to give her time to hide, but he wasn't sure if she was going to be any state to do anything upon landing. Her mind was pretty much mush...in fact, she felt empty like she had lost all substance._

_He thought at first that she was shutting off her heart again but this time was different...it was like she wasn't her anymore. He yelled in pain as Artz landed harshly on the asphalt, rolling several times before finally coming to a stop. As he thought, she was totally checked out, yet he could feel her body and still see through her eyes. _

_He decided to test something and he was surprised when it worked. The sounds her body was making; her heart beating, the blood rushing through her veins, the air being breathed into her lungs, even the sounds generated by the electrical signals of her brain and nervous system...he was somehow using them to control her body. Okay, he could work with this. First thing was to get her out of the damn road before she got run over by some idiot._

_It was difficult to move but he was pretty sure that it was being caused by the high level of pain in her body. He managed to get her onto her hands and knees but there was a problem in the form of a single headlight coming directly towards her...a motorcycle? There was some cursing as the bike slid onto its side, barely avoiding her and the driver banging into the asphalt with a distinct thud._

_Will tried to get her to her feet but he could barely focus, the pain in her body overwhelming his ability to control her. He mentally cursed when she fell onto her left side. He heard approaching footsteps and he began to panic. What if that motorcyclist was some sort of advance scout tracking the Arc Jump? Imagine his surprise when his emotions began to calm when the mysterious man in the dark suit and sunglasses placed his right hand on her head._

_"Well now...this is certainly unusual. Two minds in one body but the owner of said body is having a psychic implosion and the second mind is the only thing keeping the first from outright exploding. Listen, kid, I mean no harm to her. I'm going to take her somewhere so she can be safe." The man stated trying to lift the woman into his arms, only to be shoved back by said woman's body._

_"Stay away from her." He snapped but using her voice._

_"I can't do that, kid. I have to keep my smoking hot sex goddess away from some rather unsavory assholes." The man replied his shades slipping down to reveal eyes of solid black, only the irises were a different color, a platinum silver._

_"Who are you?" He asked fighting to sit up._

_The man helped her sit up before pushing his sunglasses back into place._

_"Petrichor." The man suddenly stated surprising William._

_"The smell of dust after the rain." He replied slightly confused as to why he had said that._

_The mysterious man raised his left hand, the back of it towards her. Will watched in utter fascination as some kind of crest appeared on the back of the man's hand, _a black cross bound in silver chains within a prism.

_"The name's Death Toll, kid, though most people just end up calling me, D.T. Your turn, squirt, who are you?" The man now identified as Death Toll said his head tilting slightly in expectation._

_The profiler wasn't sure if he should tell him his actual name, but he had a strange feeling that this man was, in fact, Blood Guard...it would explain why his sister had called out the word Petrichor before and why the Fourth Captain stopped his assault. He then remembered that Artz had called him by a different name so that was the name he was going to tell the mysterious man_.

_"Durga, my name is Durga. The men protecting her they've been hurt really bad and it's going to take a while before any of them are strong enough to find her. There was a man with dark skin, some kind of commander...he wants her and not in a good way either. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help her, I don't even know where she is…" Will rambled his emotions getting the better of him._

_"The people after her are called the Cabal and they would like very much to turn her into the ultimate weapon. As for the men protecting her; The Lightning Fang, The Terror of the Deep and The Scourge of the Sea...the three people she trusts most...and to answer the question I am feeling from you...yes, I am Blood Guard. I am Death Toll of the Assassination Corps, Second in Command of the Chaos Brigade and a member of The Prism. Now...can I get my sex goddess somewhere a little less conspicuous?" The man replied snapping at the end from his rising anger._

_Will didn't respond and Death Toll took that as a sign of agreement. He was not, however, ready for the world to go dark. What the fuck did that asshole do to her? This was the last time he trusted anyone beyond the Captains, his sister and himself with Artz's safety because this was utter fucking bullshit!_

_Light flooded their shared vision and he tried to get some semblance of where they might be but her vision was quite blurry. He could only make vague shapes and some colors but her sense of hearing was still pretty good though it didn't help much. There were many different voices and they were arguing quite a lot. Their fighting was causing them one hell of a headache that he actually let out a whine of pain with her voice._

_The arguing ceased and they were suddenly surrounded by several people of varying heights and builds. They were methodically examining her body and he was starting to get annoyed. He used what few sounds he could make out to push them away but with only marginal success._

_"This isn't good. His connection with her is overriding her conscious mind. He's the one solely in control right now." A man stated and Will swore that it was the Dark One from Once Upon A Time._

_"There is a reason for that, Goldeneye. He's the only thing holding her together at this point. We sever that connection and Artz's mind will snap like a toothpick." A dark headed woman quipped back annoyed with the one called Goldeneye._

_"But if we don't sever it then they will both die. He's not strong enough to sustain them both. It's a miracle that he has lasted this long." Goldeneye replied desperation in his voice._

_"Durga." Death Toll's voice floated towards her from somewhere out of sight but it sounded different from before._

_"What?! No, no, no! It's too soon, much much too soon! Sweet Menti Celesti!" The woman exclaimed before a pair of golden eyes came into view, very close to her face, "Durga, listen to me. You have to let her go."_

_"No...I promised...I promised that I wouldn't leave her." He replied shaking her head slightly, which made everything go out of focus, "Light, Poseidon, Hook...they're gone...I can't leave her...not now...she's…she's my...my Artz."_

_Damn, it was getting really hard to concentrate. Hell, he couldn't even feel his body anymore, but it didn't matter because his Artz needed him. He refused to abandon her._

_"Durga...you're not leaving her or abandoning her, you just need to relinquish control of her body. Otherwise, you won't be able to return to your own body and you need to because if you don't, you won't be able to save her." The woman with the golden eyes elaborated._

_"Save? I don't...I don't...understand. My head...my head is killing me. What's… happening?" He asked weakly, his brain feeling like it was about to explode and wasn't sure if it was his head or hers or both, but the pain was getting worse._

_It was becoming so bad that each new wave felt like he was being sliced into a million pieces and the pain was so sharp that he actually started crying, the tears rolling down Artz's cheeks._

_"Esmer...if we wait much longer…" Goldeneye started._

_"It's too late. It's going to happen...just like she said it would and we are going to have to live with this so you all better memorize every last detail, one of us is to be with her at all times, we can't let a single moment be forgotten...we owe it to her, to protect what she will lose to become that which she must be." The woman identified as Esmer ordered before her eyes came back into focus,_

_"I'm sorry, Durga. I wish I could have spared you from this. I'm gonna take the pain away but there will be a cost, a price both of you will pay and I am sorry, I am so, so sorry. I hope one day you can forgive me for doing this to you, to you both."_

_Her eyes began to glow a molten gold and he was mesmerized by the sight, but at the same time, he was trying to understand what she had been trying to tell him. His head was hurting so bad...he couldn't think...the edges of their shared vision began to darken as the pain began to fade, his entire being becoming numb and then nothing...he slipped into the realm of unconsciousness._

* * *

Amethyst Anna Zimmerman freely admitted that she quite literally pissed her pants. You would too if your brother suddenly turned into a fucking lightning rod..._while you were sitting mere inches from him_! That was no small amount of electricity because her hand was still stinging like a bitch from where she had been running her fingers through his hair. She actually had to go and take a shower, get fresh clothes, and place some medical ointment on her hand and most definitely on her fingers.

By the time she had returned, her big brother was totally zonked out. It made her wonder what happened after the whole _Let's turn your brother into a giant Tesla coil_ moment. She did, however, manage to work out that he had a direct link to Artz's mind shortly before he went all _Short Circuit_ on her. She smiled slightly...from what little she saw, felt, and sensed, she knew that her Doctor was still a sassy, sarcastic little shit because it was that type of personality that her brother seemed the most attracted to.

His longest relationship had been nothing but sex and sarcasm...hmm...she wondered how Veronica Santiago was doing these days. Veronica was one of the few women she actually approved of that had dated her big brother...though to be fair, they just sorted ended up arguing a lot, _debating loudly_, before practically jumping each other's bones. Hey, at least the woman was honest about what she wanted which ironically was to help her rather repressed boyfriend.

This relationship took place a few years after the Gabby Monroe disaster and her brother had pretty much sworn off women entirely and was suppressing his deeper emotions, literally becoming a powder keg ready to explode at any given moment. Enter one Veronica Santiago, probably the most sarcastic piece of shit on the planet. Anna still found that whole relationship to be utterly entertaining, especially when Veronica slammed Will up against a wall and pretty much had her way with him. It was one of the few times that she didn't even bother to leave the room. The look on her brother's face...she had to stop herself from audibly laughing.

Instead she focused on cleaning up the mess...again. Honestly...she really needed to figure out how to soundproof all the breakable stuff...not like it really mattered. Her poor brother, to this day he still doesn't know and for a long time, she thought it was a good thing, but now...she was beginning to doubt that. She knew from experience that it was a terrible idea to deny who and what you are. She had tried once and almost killed her childhood friend, Solan. That was when she decided to actively train herself, to fully utilize her abnormality so that it could never go beyond her control.

In her brother's case and yes he possessed his own special gift, she was starting to believe that they, whoever they were, that suppressed her brother's memories and subsequently her own to a certain extent, had the absolute worst idea in the whole of creation. She understood the why of it at the time, but did he have to forget everything? Why not that one day and keep everything else?

She simply sighed, knowing that it was pointless to dwell on the what if's and went back to cleaning which now included some rather annoying scorch marks from her brother's impromptu light show. She did the best she could, replacing as many of the broken or shattered objects as she could but that fucking window was a lost cause. The lightning that had erupted from her brother's body had completely demolished the flimsy cardboard patch job she had done earlier and the window was in thousands of tiny little pieces. She did fetch a plastic tarp and her roll of duct tape and covered the wide open space.

Just as she was finishing up, her brother fell out of bed. She went to help him but suddenly backed off, his eyes were still in their shattered silver state. She watched him as he pulled out some clothes and wandered off to the bathroom. What the fuck? The last time something like this happened was when they were kids and before his memory was blocked. In fact, his eyes used to stay in that shattered silver state all the time which begged the question of what the fuck because he shouldn't be moving around like a normal human being with his eyes like that… unless something happened after the _Hi I'm a lightning rod_ moment.

She decided to throw on some shoes and socks, putting on her jacket as well. She just had this feeling that her big brother was going to pull an Anna and go walking out the door without a word. She wasn't wrong either. Her brother, fully clothed, grabbed his wallet, keys, and cell phone and walked out the door, only to pop back in to ask if she was coming. She then noticed that he was not wearing his glasses and his eyes were still silver. She had to actually stop herself from crying because she really had missed seeing those eyes, the eyes of the best big brother in the world though she knew her Doctor would disagree because of her own elder brother, Trinity.

She followed after him but instead of going to the car, he started walking down the street in the opposite direction of their last jaunt outside which was last night. It was about mid morning now but it did not stop her from wondering where her brother was going. She finally decided to get some answers and caught up to him to walk beside him.

"Okay, spill, big bro. What the fuck happened and where the fuck are we going?" She demanded going for the direct approach.

He didn't answer but he was thinking quite hard. Did he not know how to answer her or was he afraid that she wouldn't believe him? He stopped and looked around, his silver eyes starting to shine again and the amethyst eyed woman began to get very nervous when several nearby windows cracked, a car's windshield spider webbed like a touch screen, and several car alarms went off. She touched Will's arm and he looked down at her, his posture relaxing and his silver eyes stopped shining but did not return the normal hazel green.

"Amy, this is going to sound crazy…" He started but stopped when she gave him a deadpanned expression,

"Okay, maybe not to you, but I was with her, Amy. I was actually inside her head, seeing through her eyes. She knew I was there and she let me in so I could hear what was going on and before that, in the alley where we found the watch and the Tardis, my leg got stuck in one of the drains and I was on the verge of drowning.

Yes, I know I should have told you but I was kinda having the world turn on its axis. Someone helped me get my leg out. It was caught on the chain of the fob watch. Someone reached around me and pulled me away, allowing to get my head back above the water. It was her, Amy, it was Artz. She saved my life...she tried to reach out to me and me to her. She just wanted to save one life and it was mine.

That's not all! Somehow, I don't know how but there was a man that looked like me, his eyes were an electric blue, and his name was Light...he survived. I think Artz might have had something to do with that too, but then somehow, they found them...the Cabal. Light...Sweet Menti Celesti...they shot him with a harpoon gun and literally ripped him away from her!

I knew that Light had pushed some of his power into her earlier and it got transferred to me at the same time and I thought that if I could push it back out and send it to him that maybe he could use it to convert to his elemental form and it worked and he did something called an Arc Jump and oh my god that hurt. Artz just sort of checked out after that and I was actually in control of her body.

I could hear all the sounds her body was making and I was able to use that to move her body, even speak through her. Good thing too because she nearly got hit by a motorcycle and apparently the guy riding it was a member of the Guard. He said something about an assassination corps and a chaos brigade and that his name was Death Toll and he had a mark, some kind of crest appear on his left hand...a black cross bound in silver chains within a prism. Oh that's right, he said that he was a member of The Prism and his eyes were pitch black, kinda like the demons in Supernatural but the irises were a platinum silver.

He called Artz a _smoking hot sex goddess_ and that he was taking her somewhere safe but it gets a bit foggy after that. I know that I was forced away from her and there was a woman apologizing. I can't really remember much about that but i do remember Artz calling me _Durga_ and that something fell out of Light's pocket when he was yanked away. It was round and silver...i think it might have been his fob watch like the one that Poseidon and Hook had.

I recognized the area they were in and if I can just find that damn warehouse…"

Anna just listened to her brother babbling like a brook and then he started saying things that sounded very familiar to her like the Assassination Corps, the Chaos Brigade, The Prism, and even the name Death Toll was ironically ringing a bell. They were a part of the Blood Guard but she couldn't seem to remember and that was both annoying and terrifying.

When her brother hit the word warehouse, she grabbed his hand and yanked him down the road until they were full on running. She knew of a warehouse near to where they were because...well because it was where she willing had sex for the very first time and with a very cute guy with dark hair and blue eyes. The only reason why she had practically jumped the guy was because he looked like Merlin from the TV series by the same name.

She never did get his name and she never saw him again after that day, but she remembered how kind he had been and so very warm. It wasn't like she was in love with the guy but she was eternally grateful to him. He was the one that convinced her to never give up hope, that no matter how dark the world became or how hard things got that there was always a star to light the way, to guide her through the seemingly endless night.

He kept her hope alive, that she would one day be reunited with the woman that had defined her soul, her Doctor, but more importantly, he made her believe that there was someone out there just for her, waiting to love her the way she was meant to be loved..._the gold to her silver, the dark to her light, the sword to her shield_. Sweet Menti Celesti, her brain had jumped to the only person she knew that came even close to a description like that… Rumple, the Dark One, Mr. Gold from Once Upon A Time but that was impossible because she would definitely remember if her sister had added him to the Blood Guard… _wouldn't she_?

She was pulled from her thoughts rather abruptly when her brother came to a grinding halt. She was breathing hard as was he, damn they were so out of shape and that simply would not do, making a mental note to start an exercise routine for her and her brother asap.

"This is it. We're close! This way!" Will proclaimed before taking off into the warehouse itself.

The brunette woman winced slightly as several of the windows of the building began to shatter but her brother didn't pay it any mind, solely focused on finding whatever it was that Light had dropped which to be honest, it probably was his fob watch because her brother was already wearing his dog tags and the idiot didn't even realize it.

She watched her brother stop to stare at the ground, a heartbroken look on his face. She hurried over to him and stopped short when she saw A Lot of red splattered about and only partially dried too.

"This is where it happened, wasn't it? Where Light was…" She couldn't even finish the question because she could only imagine how Artz had felt.

To lose everything she ever loved only to miraculously survive only to lose the three men that saved her then get one of them back only to for him to be skewered by a harpoon right in front of her. Oh god...Anna's stomach lurched and she ran a short distance away to throw up. Her brother was by her side in an instant, holding her hair out of the way. Once finished, she grimaced and walked away, her brother staying right by her side.

"Sorry about that. It's just...I can only imagine how she felt…" Anna started but trailed off as she realized something, "But you don't because you were with her. Oh god Will...I'm so sorry."

"Why the hell are you apologizing, Amy? None of this is your fault! The Cabal, the Cabal and that insane commander, they are the ones to blame. They did this to her! Made her watch! She was covered in their blood, the blood of the very people that saved her life! They did this to her!" He yelled quite a few windows shattering in response and she squeaked in fright, her barrier automatically protecting them from the falling shards of doom,

"That's me, isn't it? I'm breaking all those windows...the light bulbs, the mirrors...I was right. When we were kids, you were always taking responsibility for all the stuff being broken but you were actually covering for me! Amy, what the hell am I? Am I monster?"

That was the wrong thing for her brother to say because her eyes shifted to a molten silver as she full on decked him in the face and sending him to the ground as her shield retracted back into her body. She stood over him, her eyes blazing with rage.

"Don't you ever call yourself a monster again because if you're a monster then I am too! There's nothing wrong with being different, for being gifted and yes, Will, it is a gift because it was that very same gift that let you reach my Doctor! You were with her when it all went to hell!" She dropped to her knees as she began crying,

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you but it was for your own safety. Your gift was too strong for you to handle and it nearly killed you. I don't know who suppressed your powers or your memories but they fucked with my head too. I can't remember so much...my Doctor, our childhood, I can't remember what are godparents look like or sound like.

I do remember how they smelled though and that Uncle Sei had a brother and that he was your godfather. I know that they would always bring a friend with them, a man but I can't remember anything about him. I can barely remember anything about my friend, Solan. Every time I try to remember, more and more slips away but there is one thing I remember and I will never forget it."

"What? What is it? What?" Will questioned sounding very much like the Ninth Doctor as he sat up.

Anna looked her brother in the eyes, molten silver meeting shattered silver, and she smiled.

"I remember the day I told you about her, about Artz and you believed me." She started placing her hand over his mouth to stop him from replying,

"You don't remember, Will, but you did _actually_ believe me. It was why you wanted to learn psychology, to study the mind so that you could help Artz come to terms with what she had gone through. The truth is, Will, you loved her. You have loved her your whole life. You've been waiting for her ever since that day.

You tried so hard to learn as much as you could...about everything. My god, Will, before they fucked with your head, you were a fucking genius. You were so smart and kind and loving. You were open and honest and determined. You never let me give up on her. You insisted that she was real and that we would find her and take care of her and protect her..._together_.

When I said that you were the best big brother ever, I meant it because you believed. You didn't need proof because you had faith, in me and most definitely in her and in order to save you, all of that had to be taken away, but I never forgot who you truly are. That's why I stayed with you, even though you looked at me every day and thought I was delusional, that I was making it all up for some stupid reason.

I stayed because I remembered my big brother, my real big brother...not this farce that was forced on you, but your powers are still volatile, Will. Now that you're aware of them, you'll have to be extra careful and not lose control over your deeper emotions, but it won't always be that way.

I don't remember who told me this but Artz is the key to stabilizing your gift. It only makes sense for you to become aware of it after coming into contact with her but under no circumstances are you to direct sound waves at me with my shield up. My barrier only reflects physical stuff and when your sound passes through my barrier, it takes on the reflective properties of my shield and makes it physically manifest."

"Which was why she jumped out of the way before...my migraines, I was pushing against whatever it is that is sealing away my memories and that's what causes my migraines...holy shit, now i know why our father tried to drown me in the kitchen sink...my first migraine happened when he beat the hell out of mom when she was pregnant with you. Wow...just...wow." He breathed looking properly amazed.

"Aren't you angry with me? I've been lying to you for years...about everything! Why are you not more upset about this?!" Anna demanded her brain wanting to implode.

Her elder brother smiled at her, his silver eyes sparkling in the light, and all she could do was stare...because he was back, her real big brother was back. Yeah, he didn't remember jack diddly squat but his true personality was starting to reassert itself and her tears changed from being the upset variety to the _holy shit I am so fucking happy_ variety.

"After the whole _police box falling from the sky and whacking me in the head_ moment, I kind of figured that I would just take your word as gospel no matter how insane things got and it apparently works both ways because you didn't even bat an eye when I was rambling earlier. You just accepted it and ran with it..._literally_. I would say no more secrets but I get the feeling that some of the stuff I've been forced to forget are things that I need to handle on my own and not simply be told so instead I will ask that you tell me as much as you can and together will piece the puzzle together...once we find all the pieces that is." He answered his eyes dancing with humor.

Amethyst Anna Zimmerman did the only thing she could do in such a heightened emotional state. She launched herself at her big brother and hugged him fiercely, practically sobbing in relief. Her brother simply wrapped his arms around her and let her cry out over a dozen years of pain and loneliness. He promised that no matter what they learned or how deep the rabbit hole was going to go that they would always have each other's back and together they would find Artz and bring her home. This promise did result in more waterworks from her, but it did not lessen the impact of the last twenty four hours. Things were never gonna be the same again and the Zimmerman siblings refused to have it any other way.


	7. Chapter 6: Might and Magic

Artz: Hey everyone and welcome to my extremely neglected masterpiece that is Book One of The Star Chronicles! First thing first, I need to clear up a few things.

William is still suffering from memory loss as is Anna.

Will's true personality, the one he had before his memories were blocked, is reemerging and rather quickly...just in case you get confused by his sudden shift.

Although Will is aware of his powers, he currently lacks the ability to control them nor has anything to calm his emotions and subsequently his powers.

Will's power is not simple sound manipulation. It has a very wide spectrum of abilities, a range that is expanded depending on who he teams up with.

Each sibling is suffering from memory loss; Will is a total blackout, but Anna's is in a constant of deterioration.

I know this story is kinda sluggish right now and that's due to me NOT dumping an ocean's worth of exposition on your heads.

Also there is a slight continuity error. In Chapter One, the incident where Anna was in the hospital and covered in bloody bandages...this occurs about maybe a year or so before the camping trip. I had gotten in a rush when typing it, so apologies for the minor mishap.

That being said, there are many clues strewn throughout the chapters; some are true and others are false.

Also there will be a minor alteration to Poseidon's/Hook's fob watch. Instead of having a symbol on both front and back, the front will be where the symbols show up. This is a way to tell who is control of the body at the time. When Poseidon is in control, _the blue trident_ and when Hook is in control, _the silver hook_. When they work together...well it's either going to fuse the two symbols together or an entirely different symbol will appear. I haven't worked that out yet.

If you wish to learn more about the mysterious Blood Guard and don't mind getting a few spoilers about future books then hop over to my blog.

xatolieforge dot blogspot dot com

Quite a few articles are already posted and I suggest reading the ones with the earliest publication date because I haven't finished poking at Blogger with a pointy stick to figure out all of the different functions and how to utilize them properly, but I am getting better! In fact, the quality of my articles has vastly improved and I am now going back to revamp the older ones.

Whew...okay, now we can move on to the story.

Anna: I thought you said that you were not going to have any author rants in Stardust.

Artz: Yeah, I know but some stuff needed to be explained and….

Anna: *deadpans* You just wanted to advertise your blog because it is even more neglected than the actual story.

Artz: *cloud of dismay over her head* Woe is me!

Anna: *rolls eyes* Neither Artz or myself own anything related to Sanctuary and the other forms of entertainment that we utilize in our stories. We do, however, own our own personal characters, all of the original content that we generate aka the insanity that is my sister's brain.

Seriously...how does she keep track of all of this? *sifting through all the notes she has made from all of her sister's previous rantings* It's like there is an entire universe crammed into that brain of hers. Sweet Menti Celesti, she really is the Queen of Jiggery Pokery.

ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF JIGGERY POKERY!

Artz: And….there she blows. I was wondering when it was gonna hit again. Anyways, On with the show and the insanity that is The Realm!

* * *

Chapter Six: Might and Magic

* * *

William Zimmerman, along with his baby sister, had just had their lives thrown into a blender, both figuratively and emotionally. They were currently searching the road next to the warehouse...for what..._a fob watch_. They did have to wait until Anna had regained control over her emotions and stop sobbing in relief and joy. It was now inching past noon, but the sky was still covered in dark clouds, heavy with rain.

The siblings decided that they needed to expedite their search so that they wouldn't become drowned rats like the previous night. The younger Zimmerman just sort of trailed behind her older brother, watching his every move and her heart becoming happier with each passing moment. She had waited so long to catch even the faintest glimmer of her brother's true self for decades, but watching him now made her realize that his true personality was quickly replacing the atrocious farce that was his other personality.

In fact, in the last two and a half hours, her elder brother had almost completely reverted to his original personality and the amethyst eyed woman had been trying to stop herself from treating him like she had been for years which was proving quite difficult. Due to her behavior and mannerisms, William had become rather quiet, his entire being radiating guilt and… _disbelief_...almost like he couldn't believe his own memories because it felt so completely wrong to him. Little did she know, she wasn't far off from the truth.

The profiler was mentally beating the crap out of himself because for so many years, he had treated his baby sister like she was a lunatic, simply humoring her and not taking her seriously at all. His head was in a constant state of confusion because he didn't understand why he had acted so contradictory to his true self. It didn't make any rational sense. Could the suppression of his sonic abilities have really altered him so completely, to turn him into such cold and arrogant prick of an asshole?

He could scarcely believe it and he was trying very hard to keep his emotions under control, knowing that his power would express it for him otherwise. He couldn't let that happen because he adamantly refused to harm his younger sibling with his sound waves, yet something inside him was telling him… _something_ but he didn't know what it was. Something was locked deep within his memories, _something bad...something that he had to forget to survive_...but what? What warranted such an extreme action as memory suppression and subsequently, the suppression of his powers? Moreover, why did his sister's memories have to be affected as well? What purpose did it serve to alter her memories?

"Durga." Anna said softly, gaining his attention instantly.

How odd? Why did he immediately react to that name like he had been going by it his entire life? What did it mean? Why was it important? So many questions left unanswered, a past shrouded in mystery, the present hazed by a fog of uncertainty, and a future that was once so clear and defined was now pretty much tossed up in the air..._why_?

"I'm sorry. I keep reacting like...like i have since this whole mess started and I'm sorry. I'm trying to wrap my head around this...I waited so long and now that it's here, I honestly don't know..." She started guilt flooding her eyes.

The man with the shattered silver eyes pulled his sister to him and hugged her tightly, the woman returning the embrace after a brief moment.

"I'm the one that needs to apologize, but I know that's going to lead straight into us trying out apologize each other and it's not worth the headache." He started making the girl in his arms giggle,

"You're not the only one trying to figure out what's going on inside of them. All of my memories...it's like they belong to someone else because it doesn't feel like me at all. It confuses the hell out of me because right now it doesn't make any sense...I don't understand how I could be so _not me_…"

Anna pulled back so that she could look into her brother's eyes, a part of her practically skipping about like a kid on a sugar high because his eyes were still that amazing shattered silver that she loved and missed so much.

"It's not your fault, big brother. You don't have your memories. Time and again, my doctor said that memories were precious and that they needed to be protected because without your past, how would you know who you truly are?" She interjected giving him an understanding smile.

"It's funny. Stardust said that too." He replied his demeanor lightening a bit.

"_Stardust_?" She echoed confusion written all over her face.

Who the fuck was _Stardust_ and why did they have the name of her sister's first book of _The Star Chronicles_?

"Stardust is what I called her because I didn't know her name, but her eyes were like a liquid sapphire blue, so vibrant like it was shining with a light from within, and sparkled like fairy dust." He described his face softening in remembrance.

_Wait...did he mean...was it possible_? Only one way to find out.

"Did she have _red hair_, by any chance?" She inquired her brain going berserk at the implications.

Her elder brother smiled, his eyes lighting up a bit...though not shining thankfully.

"Red? Try crimson. It shined like liquid fire in the sunlight and…" He started but was interrupted by his sister.

"...and in the shade, it was like spilt blood bathed in moonlight." She finished her eyes widening slightly as the truth slapped her in the face.

"Yeah...how did you know what I was going to say? Are you secretly a mind reader or am I just that predictable?" He teased though curious all the same.

Anna ignored his attempt at humor because quite frankly..._it explained so damn much_!

"William, I know her name. I know who your Stardust is." The younger sibling revealed surprise still evident on her face.

Her brother stared at her, his brow furrowing. How could she know someone that she has not met even once? Was his Stardust a character from Artz's stories? It was not beyond the realm of possibilities, so he waited for his sister to continue, gesturing nonverbally to keep going.

"Artz." She stated bluntly and without a single shred of doubt in her voice.

"What?" He replied taken aback by her response.

Did his sister just imply that the woman she never met when they were kids and who he secretly had a huge crush on when he was younger was, in fact, the very same woman that had so completely captured his mind and heart? Seriously?

"Liquid sapphire eyes that shine with a light from within, sparkling like stardust. Crimson red hair that blazed like liquid fire in the sun's light, yet in the shade, was the color of spilt blood bathed in moonlight." Anna started becoming more and more excitable,

"_His Guiding Star_! That was how Killian Jones described Artz in that story! Don't you see, don't you get it?! When you were little you lacked control over your gift, but then sometime after I was born, you started actively controlling it, actually using it consciously! Only Artz can stabilize your sound waves, big brother!

_Stardust is Artz!_"

"_She's dead_. Mom said that my Stardust passed away. It was about a year before the camping trip from hell. _Artz is dead_." He responded softly, sadness seeping into his voice.

The amethyst eyed woman let out a very unladylike snort, making her brother wonder what was going on in that head of hers to react like that. It wasn't funny! Artz being dead...that should be breaking his sister's heart to pieces! _Why_?!

"If you believe that then you're a moron." Anna replied bluntly, shocking her brother as she smirked, "Where there is Light, there is Hope. Where there is Hope, there are Miracles. Miracles are impossible which means that she is definitely involved because she is Artz Lanaria, the woman that does the impossible."

"You don't think she's dead." He stated rather than asked.

"Nope, not in the slightest. Why because the Artz from our childhood is a future version of the woman that you connected to earlier today and as we both know, the Blood Guard have a very long history which means that so does she. Basically, never give a genius with the gift of probability mapping a few eons because I can guarantee that my doctor, that insanely clever woman with her god like imagination, worked out a way to overcome her _supposed demise_." The woman answered using air quotes on the last two words in a sarcastic manner.

Doctor William Zimmerman could honestly say that he truly loved his baby sister and that she was most definitely worthy of the title of _truest believer_ because even now, she still believed and that made his lingering doubts about his Stardust's supposed death to melt away. If his sister said that she survived, then he believed her. Why because Artz has already faced the absolution of certain death once before and lived. He was pretty sure that she could pull it off a second time.

Still..._his Stardust was his Artz_. Talk about _mind blown_.

"I wish I had a microphone right now." He commented in a serious tone.

"Let me guess. _Mic drop and walk away like the ultimate badass_. Right?" His sister guessed giggling.

The elder sibling went to respond when a specific sound suddenly reached his ears. He turned towards the direction the sound had come from...the alley that Light had been trying to drag Artz into before he was strung up like a pinata via a harpoon gun. _Seriously, what the fuck? Who does that kind of shit_?

"William, what is it? What's wrong?" Anna asked making his heart break for a moment.

Several windows nearby rattled dangerously as a result but he was able to calm himself down and not break anything. His sister had said the same words as she did..._Artz_. It was going to take him a while to come to terms with everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours, but he chose instead to focus on the odd sound coming from a pile of debris; newspapers, remnants of cardboard boxes, and an assortment of litter and junk.

He walked over to the mound of debris, forgetting to answer his sister's question, and knelt down to examine the area. He heard the sound again, so quiet...only someone with an ear for sounds or had a gift similar to his would have been able to hear it at all. His sister stood off to the side, her head tilted cutely in confusion, and probably wondering what the heck he was doing.

He started sifting through the debris very carefully, not wanting to damage the origin of the sound accidentally. Another minute of removing objects and he finally found it. Tucked under the mound of junk was a kitten; white paws and legs, white chest and belly, mouth and chin area were also white, but the upper half of its face, the ears, and all along the back was ginger, black, and some white. It was the eyes themselves that really drew his attention though; a deep yet vibrant blue, darker than steel blue but lighter than the deep ocean.

His sister went into the typical girl mode for when reacting to something that was cute and adorable, leaning down to get a better look but remained standing as to not startle it with too much movement. The kitten let out high pitched _mew_ sound that practically had his sister melting...much more and the poor thing was going to get smothered by an over-attentive and excitable Anna Zimmerman. Still, there was something about the little feline that made him want to pull off a _Doctor_ move and speak cat.

"Hey there, little guy. We're trying to find something…a round, silver watch that looks similar to this." He inquired pulling out the fob watch from the previous night and held it in front of the kitten.

"Dude, you are not The Doctor, so stop trying to speak cat. Besides, it's a kitten and last I checked animals do not understand human speech." Anna piped up, standing up and crossing her arms in the typical sassy sister sort of way.

William simply waited, his shattered silver eyes never leaving the enigmatic blue ones of his feline friend. The kitten crawled out a little and batted at the watch with its right paw...his sister falling back into the _aww cute_ mode again. His younger sibling had always been a cat lover, both in this life and the previous one...a somewhat depressing thought which was immediately pushed away.

The kitten looked up at him as he started purring softly, his eyes practically sparkling with mischief and amusement. _This was not your typical cat_. He was proven right when the little guy clambered over the remaining debris and ran as fast as its tiny little legs could carry him, coming to a stop in front of a nearby dumpster and mewing quite loudly. The siblings followed the feline and the profiler knelt down again.

"It's under the dumpster, isn't it?" He surmised and the kitten rubbed his head against his hand as confirmation.

The feline then looked towards the dumpster and laid down, mewing again and swatting at the space between the dumpster and the asphalt.

"Seriously? Are we seriously listening to a cat? For all we know, there is a half eaten fish under there and he wants you to pull it out." His younger sibling commented sarcastically.

"I thought I was supposed to be the cynic of this family. Take a leap of faith, oh great truest believer." He joked loving the look that crossed his sister's face for a moment.

He flattened himself out and inched closer to the dumpster, inserting his hand into the limited space. He grunted a bit as he fumbled about in search of his target, only to suddenly yelp in pain. He withdrew his hand very quickly and sat back on his knees. His sister knelt down next to him.

"Are you okay, Will? What happened?" His sister questioned extremely worried about her elder brother.

"I'm fine..._ish_. Damn thing shocked me… _literally_. I'm pretty sure that we've found Light's watch, getting it out, on the other hand, is going to be problematic." He answered shaking his hand a bit to rid himself of the lingering pain in his fingers.

"Back up and let me try." His sister ordered and he did so, but gave her a look that told her to be careful. She returned the look with one that said _I'm not you, idjit_. She then laid flat on her stomach and reached under the dumpster.

While the younger Zimmerman attempted to retrieve the elusive item, the elder sibling was currently fixated on the extremely helpful kitten. Its eyes flashed gold for a moment and the pain in his fingers from where he had been shocked faded away almost instantly. _What the holy living fuck_? The kitten looked up at him and Will understood why he thought the feline would understand him earlier.

_He was no ordinary cat_. The profiler gingerly picked up the kitten and held him in his arms, said cat purring happily. He continued to stare at the little guy, his mind trying to understand what his instincts were trying to tell him. His eyes widened slightly as he remembered a show his sister had been obsessed with a few years ago..._Merlin_. The way the eyes flashed gold in the show when magic was being used was exactly how he would have described what happened mere moments ago with the very suspicious furry creature.

He became distracted when his baby sister let out a yelp..._of triumph_...as she extracted herself from under the dumpster. In her hand was a silver fob watch with an almost surreal luster and shine. The engravings on the back read _Star Light_ which had his brain coming to a complete halt. The circular symbols adorning Light's watch and Poseidon's watch..._Gallifreyan_. That's why it was so familiar to him because it was the circular language used by the Timelords.

He held onto the kitten with one arm while pulling out the pirate's watch..._Star Sea_. That's what the markings said...Light for Light and Sea for Poseidon/Hook, but what did the Star mean..._click_.

_**Star Dust**_.

His sister had once said that his natural scent was like _the dust_ _after the rain_ and when DT said _Petrichor_, he had responded with _the smell of dust after the rain_. It's a call sign and the word/definition was a test, a way of identifying their own without calling unwanted attention to themselves.

Sea - Hook/Poseidon

Light - Light

Dust - Durga

The one thing they all had in common was the word _star_ and what was the one thing all four of them had in common..._Artz_.

Star - Artz

Sea - Hook/Poseidon

Light - Light

Dust - Durga

Star Sea - Artz and Poseidon/Hook

Star Light - Artz and Light

Star Dust - Artz and Durga

_Holy shit_! A redundancy, a secondary verification of one's identity...specifically tailored for Artz, a way for her to know for sure that the person before her was indeed who they said they were. He immediately attempted to open the black fob watch but when he pressed the release button… _nothing happened_. Ha! He was right! Only Artz and possibly the owner could open it!

"You know that these aren't actually watches, right?" Anna commented garnering his attention.

"If they're not watches then what are they?" He asked genuinely confused.

It looks like a watch and feels like a watch, but it's _not_ a watch? _Huh_? The amethyst eyed girl giggled at his perplexed expression and held up the silver contraption that had so graciously zapped him earlier, a lightning symbol on the front.

"They're shaped like watches because Artz absolutely loves fob watches. Blame the Tenth Doctor for that obsession that never passed. Now the thing about Artz in regards to these watches has to do with another obsession of hers..._music_. Each member of the Blood Guard, at least from what I remember, is supposed to have their own theme tune, a song chosen by Artz just for them." She explained her face scrunching up slightly.

It must be difficult for her to access that particular set of memories containing the information. He did not envy her in the slightest because he had his own memories or lack thereof to contend with..._a decent sized headache was in his near future, he was absolutely certain of this_.

"Wait, you're saying that these fob watches are not _actual_ watches, but, in fact, are _fob watch shaped music boxes_?" He guessed though to be fair, he could totally see his Artz doing just that.

"Correctmundo...sweet Menti Celesti, I have got to quit saying that. Meh… anyways, each fob watch is unique for each member of the Guard, so too is the song contained within, but there are minor deviations like with the Third and Fourth Captains. Their watch has a dual release; one click for Poseidon and two clicks for Hook.

Poseidon's personal theme is called _Blackheart_, a rather beautiful melody; piano, violin and possibly a xylophone. It starts out soft, almost sorrowful, but becomes more aggressive when the violin comes into play and the song becomes powerful, commanding even, but ends in a kind gentleness which is very fitting for him. I can't really remember why that is but at this point, it's irrelevant.

With Light though, I'm not sure if she ever settled on his personal theme tune. I know at one point, she had like five or six candidates; _The Wanderer's Lullaby_, _I See The Light_, _Powerful Magic_, _Sabotage_, _The Doctor's guitar solo_, and shoot...what was the name of the last one. It was the one playing in _Thor: Ragnarok_ when Thor went full on badass with his lightning…" She rambled then slapped her hands together as she remembered the title, "The last one was _Immigrant_ by _Led Zeppelin_."

Artz really was a fan of the classics, both _Sabotage_ and _Immigrant_ were classic rock songs from the seventies and eighties. He wasn't sure about the others though. His sister must have sensed his confusion or he was being particularly transparent today.

"_I See The Light_ and _Powerful Magic_ are duets. The first is from the animated film called _Tangled_ and no, it's not out yet...sorry. As for the second, it's from the musical episode called _The Song in Your Heart_ and the show is..._Once Upon A Time_." She elaborated pausing for dramatic effect.

"Of course it is." He replied getting to his feet and pocketing the watch.

He started walking towards home when Anna called after him, quickly catching up to him as they entered the warehouse.

"What about the cat?" She inquired noting that her brother still carried the tiny thing in his other arm.

"_Merlin_." He stated receiving a mew of approval from the kitten.

"You're keeping him and why Merlin?" She questioned surprised by her brother's desire to adopt the kitten.

"Of course, I'm keeping him. Artz loves cats and they make great companions for people that have recently experienced a severe emotional trauma." He replied his psychology knowledge kicking in.

"You're keeping him because he is therapeutic and you still haven't answered me about the whole _Merlin_ thing." She responded a bit skeptical.

He slowed his pace and eventually came to a halt...fortunately he did so at the best possible moment because they had been right about to walk out of the warehouse when it started pouring again. The siblings trudged off to the side, not wanting to get soaked again and sat down on some wooden crates. The kitten hopped down onto the wood and laid down in between the two siblings, seemingly taking a nap, but Will was pretty certain that he was pretending so he could eavesdrop.

"There's something different about this little guy and I just want to take him home with me. You know me, I'm usually a dog person but this little kitten has an almost impossible allure to him. If that isn't magic than I don't know what is. Besides, I think he's meant to be with us...at least for now. I don't know why. I'm just following my instincts." He explained shrugging a bit before realizing something,

"Wait a minute, you told me about Light and Poseidon's theme songs, but you never actually told me about Hook's. I will laugh hysterically if it's _To Neverland_ from the Season Two soundtrack from _Once Upon A Time_."

The younger Zimmerman actually laughed pretty hard at that comment, making him especially happy. It had been such a long time since his baby sister laughed like that..._honest and true laughter_. It warmed his insides despite the chilly air and made a little of his guilt disappear but not much...still, it was a step in the right direction at the very least.

"As funny as that would be, along with some serious irony, the fourth captain's personal theme tune is most definitely something else. It starts off being calm like the first morning light as it shines upon the sea. The majority of the song is actually quite powerful and when you listen to the lyrics, it's rather dark too.

It exemplifies the true power and might of the raging seas amidst the most frightening of storms, but also the foreboding darkness at the bottom of the ocean, not knowing what dangers are concealed within. At the same time though, it's wild and passionate, a deep swelling of intense emotion that can only be felt rather than shown or spoken, an unending love that surpasses the width and depth of all the waters of the world.

As it nears the end, the notes become strong and sturdy like one has weathered the fiercest storm in the most treacherous waters...only to become soft and slow, both relief and sorrow mixing as one, for all do not return from the great expanse that is the sea, for they now lay at rest within its depths...enshrouded by the darkness and the cold, no longer to roam in search of peace, their suffering at an end.

It follows the path of the breaking dawn and enters the wrathful storm that is life and ends at the twilight, the first stars beginning to appear as darkness falls. Now this.._this song is his_. I swear it was written just for him because it fits him perfectly though the title is a bit ironic." She replied completely enthralling her elder sibling with her unintentional poetry.

The way she was speaking was very similar to their wayward Doctor because some of that genius had clearly rubbed off on his baby sister.

"And the name of this absolutely fantastic song that befits the great and terrible Captain of the Jolly Roger?" He inquired being intentionally dramatic.

His baby sister snorted in a vain attempt to contain her laughter at his rather flamboyant theatrics. Once she got herself under control, she answered him and several windows exploded.

"_The Davy Jones theme_." She answered before squawking in fright, her barrier raising automatically to protect them from the rather large amounts of glass shards falling to the ground.

She looked over at her elder brother, wondering what had caused the sudden surge of his sound waves. She was shocked to see him crying, his eyes wide like he just realized something and that something packed a major emotional wallop which resulted in the shower of doom. Once the glass stopped falling, her barrier retreated back inside herself. She got off the crate and got in front of her brother, taking his face into her hands and wiping away his tears with her thumbs.

"One of the fragments I saw before I connected fully to Artz...she was sitting on her legs outside and the sun was disappearing. I thought it was an eclipse at first but the way she was crying...I think I saw her final moments before coming here. There wasn't any sound but I knew that she had started singing..._it was that song_.

I wondered why she sang that song at the end of the world...why it felt like more than just a song...almost like..._a beacon_. _She was calling to him...to her Captain… calling for help...and he heard her._ That's what allowed her to come here! The effect preceded the cause and because he loved her with his entire being, resonating with the song she had chosen for him..._that's what made the bridge_! That connection, that bond between souls!" He rambled standing all of sudden and looking straight at her,

"That's why you're here too. You're bound to her and she to you. She couldn't save your life, so instead she made it possible to give you a new one. She doesn't know it either. She has no idea that it was her love for you was what allowed you to be born in this world. Seriously, the probability of you being reborn into the very world that she had escaped to...astronomically impossible which means that it's true because like you said before..._she is the woman that does the impossible_."

To say she was shocked was the understatement of the fucking century, but damn if it didn't make perfect sense. She had always wondered why she had been born in this world with all the memories of her previous life intact, her adult mind capable of functioning within the still developing brain of an infant. So many of her questions had just been fucking answered.

_Anna wanted to save her Doctor, only to have her Doctor save her yet again. Artz Lanaria...she really is the woman that does the impossible_._..and she does it with style_ too.

* * *

Artz: And Cut! Whew...I managed to finally get through this chapter. I wonder how many words it is. Let's find out!

*hits the menu button then the word count option*

Holy shit...it's actually over five thousand words and I still haven't added the rest of the character blocking, more detailed descriptions, smoothing out the transitions and a plethora of other things too. Wow...mind blown.

Anna: Stop typing, save it, and put the office back the way it was.

Artz: *looks at the office* Whoops. *poofs into existence* Sorry about that, but I had rearranged the office to try and keep the heat from our tiny little space heater in a smaller area. I even covered the slots in the office door with maps and taped them suckers down to keep the wind out because man, oh man, it is fucking cold. Thirty nine fucking degrees and I had to work in this shit!

Anna: At least you're home now.

Artz: And not much warmer though I can at least feel my fingers. My room has three walls made from cement blocks and as we all know, cement blocks hold in the heat during the summer and hold in the cold during the winter, essentially making my room the hottest and coldest one in the house. How I haven't gotten sick, I will never know.

*blinks*

Odd.

Anna: What's odd?

Artz: Normally when you show up, the rest of the Blood Guard are not far behind, especially the Prismata but where are they? *thinks for a moment before she glares at Anna* Okay, who are you and what have you done with my sister?

Imposter: *glamor vanishes to reveal a dark haired man dressed in a very familiar looking green/gold outfit*

Artz: Loki!

Loki: *an exaggerated bow* My lady.

Artz: Sweet Menti Celesti, I've never had you pop up before...or have I? *pointed look*

Loki: *raises hands in a placating manner* This is honestly my first time doing this and the only reason I did was because Anna was practically dead on her feet, so I sent her to bed and came in her stead.

Artz: Aww...and to think that everyone views you as a villain.

Loki: *chuckles* You ever get around to writing that Loki/Artz story where I'm actually the good guy simply playing the role of the bad guy to bring together the Avengers in order to combat that ugly purple dude with a whacked out god complex…

Artz: *smirks* You left out the part where she was once an Asgardian known as the Goddess of Rebirth and was the former lover of the Goddess of Death, Hella, and that the Eternal Flame is actually what's left of her essence after Odin destroys her to weaken Hella enough to trap her in another realm.

Loki: Actually I wanted to mention how Odin locks Artz inside the crypt of her fallen comrades, the Blood Guard, and binds her in the chains of Andromeda that tighten every time Hella gets near her and that the way Loki finds her is actually through a different version of her from a parallel universe that is married to Doctor Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, and the younger sister of the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Starlord.

Anna: *crawls in with a scowl on her face* Shut up, Loki. She has enough stuff to work on as is. Leave her alone!

*just as predicted, several members of the Prismata show up and Artz gets fed up with all the constant chatter and punts them back to their respective stories/chapters*

Artz: And that's all she wrote, folks! Good night, everybody and seeya next time, dearies! *disappears in a cloud of magic*


	8. Chapter 7: The Siren's Call

Chapter Seven: The Siren's Call

* * *

After the rain had eased up and the siblings were able to wrangle their emotional states back under their control, they returned home with the newest member of their household...after clearing it with their landlords first. Anna breezed right by them with the cat in her arms, simply too exhausted to converse like a normal human being, but the profiler just stood there and stared at them.

The landlords were the actual owners; one for the property itself and one for the actual apartment complex. The owner of the complex was a young looking woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes...a rather familiar shade of blue at that. The owner of the property was a man with brown hair a few shades lighter than his female counterpart and his eyes were brown but had an odd vibrancy, was that even the right descriptor, that seemed familiar.

"Doctor Zimmerman? Are you alright?" His landlady asked but he didn't respond to the name.

His still shattered silver eyes did return to the woman, his mind being overloaded with an intense amount of sensory input. His sonic abilities were trying to tell him something, something important...power. His landlady possessed some kind of power. He couldn't call it a gift or an ability...it was far too strong for that.

"Will?" His landlord spoke, his eyes becoming worried.

The moment the man's voice reached his ears, pain shot through his head from his ears to his eyes. Light bulbs began to break as a deep rumble echoed throughout the building. Vases, pottery, the glass in picture frames, and many other objects that were highly susceptible to high intense sonic emissions were shattering as the profiler grasped his head in pain. The pain was so intense that Will couldn't see anything at all, his vision blurred from tears and the over stimulation of the optics nerves.

"Durga." A woman's voice said quietly.

That name and that voice broke through the sudden eruption of his sonic powers, the pain receding until it was completely gone. The surge did drain what little energy he had left and he crumpled like a rag doll. He was fortunate that his landlords were so close because they were able to catch him and bring him down gently as he lost consciousness.

When he awoke in his room, a few things popped out at him. The first was the cat sleeping on his chest, the window had been replaced, no screaming/panicked landlords, and the utter lack of his baby sister's presence. Everything else except the landlords were par for the course but for his sister to not be with him at all after what happened...he definitely needed to figure out what was going on.

He closed his eyes to let his sense of hearing take over, but the continuous purring of his new feline friend turned almost all the sounds he might have heard into a jumbled mess, the audio version of a scribble and it wasn't exactly painless either...it just disrupted everything though it did stop stuff from breaking. He finally got fed up and the cat went kerplop on the floor with a pitiful mew.

"It's your own fault for using me as a bed." Will answered while sitting up, "Now where is my sister and don't pretend that you don't know what I'm saying because we both know that's bullshit."

The cat got onto his feet, climbed a book shelf and knocked off a hardback novel then jumped down, left the room and returned with his wallet in his mouth. He batted the book towards the wallet.

"Bookstore? She went to the book store after I lost control to read or buy a book? No way, she wouldn't leave me on my own like that." The profiler objected adamantly refusing that his sister would just up and leave him.

The cat's eyes flashed gold and he felt like he was just slapped in the back of the head Gibbs style from NCIS. The blue eyes of his feline companion were glaring at him as if to say What am I...chopped liver? He let out an exasperated sigh as he got up then saw what the day and time was...oh shit. It was Monday morning and he had to be at work in twenty minutes. There was no way he could get washed, dried, dressed and out the door into the car and drive to the Bureau...especially if Anna took the car because he hadn't finished building their motorcycles yet.

He became extremely light headed by some sort of shimmering black mist with a transparent checkered pattern. He felt arms around him while Merlin started hissing and growling up a storm...literally. At the rate this was going, a good chunk of the buildings infrastructure was going collapse. He felt a gentle kiss on the back of his left hand before he suddenly found himself in front of his workplace, fully clothed and freshened up.

He felt a pressure in his jacket pocket, some kind of object. He reached in and pulled it out, breathing a sigh of relief. The object was the Starsea watch and the blue trident was on display rather than the silver Hook, meaning Poseidon had been able to recover enough to at least retake control, but he was worried by how dimly lit the crest was...a reflection of the owner's current state...completely forgetting about what had just occurred.

He placed the watch into the pocket of his pants and looked straight at the headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for this region of the country. He knew that Artz was safe with her Guard, at the very least with DT, but the Second, Third, and Fourth Captains were in some serious trouble and desperately needed help or at least a safe place to bunker down until they could get their strength back.

In the meantime, he'll use the Bureau's resources to find out everything he could about the Blood Guard or the current whereabouts of the captains. He knew that he would have to tread very carefully. That demented bastard of a commander had someone else pulling his strings and making him dance like a marionette. As of right now, the organization, this Cabal, was unaware of the Zimmerman siblings' involvement with Artz or the Captains. He had to keep it that way, but even as he climbed the stairs leading to the front entrance, he knew that without something to calm his mind and keep his heart settled then his sonic abilities would get him and Anna either captured or killed.

The swirling and shimmering mist began to form into the general shape of a humanoid figure. The moment it's foot touched the floor a checkered pattern began to ripple upwards, solidifying it into an actual person. The mist faded revealing a teenage girl in gothic attire, surreal rose colored hair and hypnotic azure eyes. The newest member of the Zimmerman household hissed at the new arrival, a deep growl resonating from his throat.

"Now, now, little kitty. I am not your enemy this time." The girl stated sitting on the floor and resting her back against Will's bed, "I was just making sure that he arrived exactly when he needed to."

The kitten stopped growling, its fur slowly returning to its normal state. He tilted his head a bit, his eyes weary yet curious.

"I don't always cause problems, ya know. Sometimes I can fix them. It's rare and usually when she can't do it herself." The girl responded to his nonverbal question.

The kitten flattened itself on the ground and started inching towards the pink haired goth. He then reached out and poked her hand with the pads of his paw a few times, making the girl smile just a little. In a surge of courage, the kitten leaped onto her lap and her arms immediately wrapped around the furry little creature.

"I know it's not easy for you...any of you to understand why I do the things I do…" The girl started petting the kitten with gentle strokes, "...there is duality in all things. That which is seen and that which reflects, what shines and what darkens...give and take, create and destroy...to forget is to remember, to remember is to forget. Back to my realm, I must go...back to a story they must never know."

The gothic girl picked up the cat and set him on the floor before rising to her feet. She walked over to a floor length mirror yet for her...it did not reflect. For the mysterious rose haired teen, it was a door...a gateway to the Void Beyond. One of many realms that were under her dominion but this one was born because of another, a realm for a realm.

"Thank you...Noel." She whispered before entering the mirror and disappearing entirely.

The kitten let out a sad mew because he had just worked something out and it broke his heart. He heard the apartment door open, signaling that his other charge had returned home. He glanced at the wallet on the floor and his eyes flashed gold. The wallet disappeared, only to reappear in William's jacket pocket because he was trying to find his security ID card. Now to deal with the other one.

For the next several months, strange occurrences kept happening around the siblings; exes showing up and making life miserable, random encounters with people that felt familiar to them, Anna was nearly raped but a wolf like dog tore the guy to pieces while she ran away then there was the arrival of a state-of-the-art, multi-screen computer system that Will swore was soundproof and Anna proof...earning a snack in the head while accidentally spilling coffee all over the keyboard and still worked perfectly fine...but neither of them had ordered it and there was no return address label either.

Merlin had taken to disappearing at random which had initially freaked the younger Zimmerman out but her brother insisted that he would be back and sure enough, four days later the troublemaker was pawing at the door and mewing pitifully, basically saying Please let me in! She didn't because she was mad but then her brother came home from work, picked up the little guy, carried him in and started chatting away with the feline like he was a human being.

Anna didn't understand why her brother was so attached to that cat. Half of the time the irritating furball was batting stuff off shelves, knocking a stack of folders over, climbing all over the priceless super computer they were using to research the Blood Guard...with very little success. When the damn cat actually bit her when she wouldn't pick yet another book he had knocked down, she yelled at her brother that she was heading out and to clean up his cat's mess. Then promptly grabbed her things and barged out of the flat.

William walked into the living room to find out what was going on, only to see his cat face palming himself then shaking his head before looking up at the ceiling like he was praying for some kind of miracle or divine intervention.

"Merlin." He stated making the cat go shock still, "I know you're not a normal cat but there are easier methods to get your point across. That being said...what is it that you keep trying to drill into her currently caffeine deprived head?"

The feline hung his head and just trotted off to under the super computer. He used his paws and head to push the book that had been slid under there by Anna's kick of annoyance. The profiler picked up the book and examined it. One of his coworkers had given it to him to read. Apparently it was a recently published author's very first book but was flying off the shelves like crazy. He hadn't had the chance to read it himself. He looked at his furry friend and he could see the desperation and hope swirling in his eyes.

"Well since it's just us guys, how about we read a book? According to all the gossip, it is very good, especially since its the author's very first novel to be published." Will asked knowing what the answer would be.

Merlin practically leaped into his arms, purring quite loudly. He laughed as he got off the floor, got some snacks and something to drink...then he noticed the feline pushing a box of tissues across the floor. Oh great, a tear jerker. Let's see how much a single book can sucker punch him in the feels department.

Several hours later and having actually read the novel twice, the profiler had definitely been glad for the tissues but the second read through definitely required a roll of toilet paper. He was only vaguely aware that his heightened emotions had not triggered his sound waves but was overridden by the need to know more.

"Oh man, that is...that is...when's the next one coming out…" Will talked aloud, the cat snoozing away at the other end of the couch.

The elder Zimmerman wasted no time in dive bombing the computer and looking up the author, Orin Sigma...and actually leapt out of his chair. The second book had been released three weeks ago and the third one had been released a few hours ago. He grabbed his stuff and was out the door in less than a minute. He didn't bother waiting for the elevator and just started running down the stairs, bumping into a few people along the way.

Now why was he running so fast because the press had just released the fact that all three parts of the trilogy were already on sale as per requested by the author himself. As an avid reader, he didn't want them to have to wait to find out what happened next, but did allow for a staggered release to appease the publishing house which apparently backfired because his books were doing so well that the publishing house couldn't keep up with the demand.

Basically if the profiler wanted to finish the trilogy anytime soon, he needed to get to the bookstore as quickly as possible and he groaned because his sister had taken the car and he was still waiting for certain parts to finish the motorcycles. He would just have to run and hope he could pull off a miracle...he really should have watched where he was going.

Why because he had just been clipped by a car and had a nice gash on the front of his left upper thigh. The impact had initially made him spin because of the slightly slick ground which left him rather dizzy after landing on the ground. A man knelt next to him, leaning on some kind of cane. He was pretty sure he was saying something then the pain in his leg suddenly vanished and a golden light filled his vision.

The light faded as his vision cleared. The man helped him sit up and Will shook his head slightly. What the hell was going on? Meet one water wielding pirate and everything goes fucking haywire afterwords? The man hoisted him to his feet and the profiler leaned heavily on the car to catch his breath.

"Sorry." He apologized eliciting a chuckle from the man.

"He's apologizing for being hit by my car. That's quite the novelty, Doctor Zimmerman. An ironic one at that." The man replied immediately gaining Will's attention for two very specific reasons.

The first was the voice, the second was his name, so he looked up and could only stare in utter disbelief. The man before him was almost an exact duplicate for Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One from Once Upon A Time...how did he know his name?

"I'm not entirely sure which question I should go with first, so I'll skip the QA and just bum a ride to the nearest bookstore as repayment for almost killing me." William stated in a rush, hearing glass rattle around him which was not a good sign.

"No need. If I may?" The man requested gesturing to the door he was leaning on.

He moved out of the way and watched the not so Dark One open the door and pulled out a bag filled with what appeared to be books. He then closed the door and handed the bag to the quite frankly confused profiler. The man smiled, a knowing look in his eyes.

"All first editions. In fact, they are the very first off the line first editions." The man explained a little smugness entering his tone.

"I don't understand." Will commented becoming even more confused.

"Look inside...oh and you're welcome." The man replied playfully.

The elder Zimmerman set down the bag, pushed back the inner wrapping and discovered that the very trilogy that he had been running to get was on top and were actual copies and not just blank pages. They even had a personal message in each one and were autographed, but that wasn't all, there were other books by the same author that had not been released yet. He looked up, only to go what the fuck because the man and the car were gone. It was like they never existed at all.

"Oh my god...I am so totally Alice right now." He breathed before gingerly picking up the bag like it was the most fragile thing in the world and went home to binge read.

Amethyst Anna Zimmerman was trying her best to keep her natural sounds positive and pleasant because her brother relied heavily on her personal sounds to keep him grounded and in control, but she was anything but positive at the moment. One thing after another kept pushing her further and further into the negative side of the emotional spectrum and today had pretty much hit her like a ton of bricks.

Honestly her brain couldn't handle it, more specifically the implications of it. A man in a suit around the fifties range and wearing a top hat had deliberately pushed her into the road. She barely managed to get to her feet, cars speeding by her while honking their horns or cussing at her for being in the road. She did try to return to the sidewalk but it was rush hour traffic, emphasis on rush. Normally a driver would be able to slow down and allow her to cross without too many problems but rush hour meant that slowing down equals accident.

She heard a horn and watched as some jackass pretty much squeezed his way in between an SUV and a delivery truck. The SUV managed to move enough to let him pass but the driver of the delivery truck was paying more attention to the idiot trying to side swipe him and didn't notice that a woman was stuck in the road, unable to cross.

She couldn't use her shield for two reasons; the first, exposure and two, the kinetic force would be reflected back or away, instantly killing everyone in the immediate vicinity. She couldn't do it, she wouldn't do it...Brother...Erin...Artz...she closed her eyes and waited. She was taken off guard when she pushed away by a pretty hefty force, only to hear a terrible crunch. After she managed to stop rolling and a few people helped her up, she figured out what happened.

The rather hefty and impactful force that had pushed her completely out of the line of fire...another vehicle. From what she was told, the driver had used her own vehicle to create some kind of mini shockwave of kinetic energy to push her up and off her feet which made her land somewhat on the sidewalk. Anna had managed to get a brief glimpse of the driver that had saved her life before they zipped up the body bag.

During all the confusion, she managed to slip away...more like limp away. She was pretty banged up, her body most likely covered in a plethora of bruises, but that pain paled in comparison to what she was feeling in her heart right now. Five foot one, shoulder length brown hair, collared dark plaid dress ending above the knees, dark leggings and a single ring on one thumb...Clara, Clara Oswald but it couldn't be...could it? Why?

She stumbled and fell forward into a man's arms. Everything was just so fucked up right now that she didn't even bother to look up at him, but she was definitely getting drowsy. The adrenaline was fading from her system and she just konked out like a light. When she awoke, she found herself in her favorite corner of a private library that served mainly as a coffee shop.

How did she end up here? Who was it that caught her and more importantly, what the hell did they do to her? She was freaking out because she wasn't feeling any pain and she should have been insanely sore from all those bruises. A quick check over revealed that there wasn't any. No bruises whatsoever...a dream...no it was definitely real. Her thoughts were interrupted when Ellie, her favorite waitress at the coffee shop showed up with the newest recipes being tried out. She set down the tray then sat on the table in front of the younger sibling.

"You wanna talk about it?" The short haired brunette asked her expression being serious and to the point.

This was the thing about Ellie Jones...it didn't matter how crazy it sounded or how impossible it was, she would always listen no matter what. Anna loved her coffee, yeah, and she loved the private library but she really just came for the waitress sitting in front of her. She was no Artz but she felt like one of the people that had been affected by her influence...so she crumbled and Ellie listened to every word.

When done the brunette picked out a flavor for her to try and the purple eyed girl asked if they had managed to score any of Orin Sigma's books because her brother treated his copies like it was the original copy of Genesis or something. The waitress laughed, went to a specific section and plucked a book from a nearby shelf. She then handed it to the much calmer Zimmerman and returned to her duties in the shop.

Anna sipped her coffee, enjoying how the heat just seemed to melt away the tension and stress. It had a decent flavor, definitely a zinger but a gentle one. The aftertaste reminded her of when Artz made a pitcher of pink lemonade. She had pretty much used the entire canister and said she liked her pink lemonade with a kick...well this coffee had a kick alright. She stared at the beverage in shock...pink lemonade...that was a memory, an actual memory. She kept sipping the drink.

With every sip came more and more until it had fully triggered a complete memory. For the first time in years, she could see Artz clearly. Dark blonde hair, almost like the color of certain mice fur...which she hated, forest green eyes but they had a dark ring of green on the outer edge of the iris and around the pupil itself was like a variation of colors found in the changing of the seasons, specifically autumn...oranges and browns and just a touch of yellow. Hazel!!! That's right! Her doctor's eyes were classified as a transitory hazel but remained predominately as a green hazel denoting deeper positive emotions.

She remembered how the blonde had been leaning on their kitchen island, stirring the pitcher lazily with a wooden spoon… something about how metal spoons mucked up the flavor...with her other hand propping up her chin, a look that Anna knew well. Her Doctor had come up with an idea but had hit a snag, but the moment Erin had stepped inside the building, she grabbed the glasses that she had been chilling in the freezer and poured the lemonade into them and by the time he had reached the kitchen, they had already become quite cold.

Her laughter….she remembered Artz laughing at their reactions to her pink lemonade, practically doubling over because Erin had started shaking his head like he had just drunk some really strong whiskey that made the one fifty one proof Bacardi rum taste like morning coffee. Her voice...the amethyst eyed woman started crying because for the first time in so very long...she had her Doctor back.

She polished off the remains of that coffee, quickly wiping away her tears. Despite something terrible happening, she was given an amazing and wonderful gift and all because of a stubborn control freak jumping into the Doctor's time stream.

Thank you, Clara Oswald.

She looked down at the book in her hands. This book and those that followed after has her elder brother so enthralled that he's not even willing to let her hold them, let alone read, but it probably had more to do with her propensity for knocking beverages over all the time. Was she always this clutzy? That's why she asked Ellie if she could keep an eye out for them and as promised, she delivered...the very first one apparently...The Jewel of Aurora by Orin Sigma...Orin? Wasn't that what she called Rumple in one of their co-op stories? Didn't help that the title of the book seemed familiar too.

Shit...she's not sure...fragments...like a shattered mirror…her eyes widened… shattered mirror...her brother's eyes, his true personality revealing itself...was it possible for her memories to return if her brother started actively using his gift...but without Artz that would be extremely dangerous. No, it wasn't worth the risk. She had to protect her brother at all costs, but then a terrible thought hit her.

What if it was the opposite? What if her memories returning meant that her brother was losing control?

She fished out her mobile and used the speed dial to call her brother but before it even started ringing, her phone slipped from her grasp. Why...music...a very specific kind of music that shouldn't even exist yet. It was a violin, the style was definitely dubstep, but it was the song that had her going what the fuck.

William Liam Zimmerman was having a very bad day. He had woken up with the mother of all headaches and when he went to wash up, he could only stare in shock. His eyes weren't the normal silver and that scared the hell out of him. Silver eyes meant that he was himself, his true self, but the eyes looking back at him were hazel green. They weren't quite the same as before but it was enough to make his body start trembling...and nothing was rattling. He needed to get out of the flat right now before his sister got up.

He rushed around to gather everything, took a quick shower, barely dried off, threw on his clothes, pocketed the essentials and put on a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes. He barely made it into the living room when his sister mumbled out a good morning. He made up some excuse about work and that he was taking the car this time before rushing out the door. He drove around for a few hours then just parked and went to a nearby bench, his entire body trembling and his head felt like it was about to explode.

"My head." He grit out, his hands fisted in his hair.

He actually fell forward off the park bench, his sunglasses slipping off. The pain started circling through his entire system, as if mapping out every single cell. His body felt like a live circuit and he knew...he knew he wouldn't be able to handle this level of pain for much longer.

The cat known as Merlin sat before the floor length mirror in William's room, waiting for the surface to change and after what seemed like an eternity, the surface rippled to reveal another realm. The rose haired gothic teen floated in front of the mirror.

"This has turned into a much bigger clusterfuck than it should have been in the first place. Everything had been set up perfectly! Do you know how hard it was just to get her to him and him to her?! To form the perfect bond that would have saved them both!" The rose haired gothic teen snapped, extremely cranky, "Why couldn't you have just left them alone? Do you know what that means, Noel? I wish things were different but now I have to...I guess that's it then...what I'll be, what I will always be...the demented pink haired pixie that always changes and never answers questions."

The feline hung his head in shame, closing his eyes and actually crying. The pink haired teen's eyes softened, knowing that he had finally worked it out. To be fair, he was distracted a lot. Looking at him now, he was so sad. She closed her eyes and allowed her essence to spread through her dominion like the branches of a never ending tree.

There had to be something ...hmm… without being fully synchronized, it nullifies the majority of her future abilities, causes some serious problems which will ultimately end in her death...a rather permanent one at that. There had to be something to...holy shit, now that's the ultimate clusterfuck. It will cause terrible and lasting pain on all levels, but the future it brings will surpass everything.

"Noel." The girl spoke softly, making the cat raise his head to look at her, "It will take some doing, the involvement of others, and so many experiencing horrific and lingering pain, the splitting of souls, the breaking of countless hearts and so many souls weeping in blood from wounds that will never heal, but I have found a way.

I must take on the form that you have always believed me to be, but so too must the Guard...the Prism cannot know unless they work it out for themselves. I know that you desire to remain with them, to fulfill the vow you made to her so long ago but you must not."

The cat was surrounded by golden sparkles and was transformed into a man bearing a remarkable resemblance to the building's landlady and he did not look happy. In fact, he appeared to be two seconds shy of destroying everything around him, his eyes a smoldering gold. He managed to get himself under control, but his hands were still clenched tightly.

"And what do you expect me to do, Lumina...leave them defenseless? William has no control over his power and Anna was just recently targeted by the Great Intelligence...which by the way, you're welcome for healing a few dozen shattered bones and enough bruises that she would have been bed ridden for over a year. You cannot expect me to stand idly by and watch two of the most important people in the whole of creation to her get hurt, captured or killed." He responded passionately.

"Then don't look." She stated softly.

Merlin flinched at those words. He had heard them long ago when he was shown an alternate timeline, but he could see it in her eyes. She was neither callous nor was she cruel, steadfast and true...why...why did it have to be this way? Why couldn't he stay?

"Lumina, please...I have never broken my word to her. Give me one reason why I should." He pleaded the gold in his eyes fading to reveal the slight shimmer of tears.

She smiled at him, a small giggle bubbling out of her.

"The Reason..hmm, isn't that a song? Oh it is! I wonder...the reason is the reason and that reason leads to that reason and oh my goodness! There are just so many! So many reasons and so little time." She responded cryptically before the mirror reverted back to its normal state.

"Yuna...Durga...I'm sorry." He spoke softly before disappearing in a golden, shimmering cloud.

Amethyst Anna Zimmerman was having the mother of all emotional roller coasters. Not only did she have a G.I./Clara incident, was nearly killed, was miraculously healed, actually regained an entire memory along with the distinct possibility of her brother's powers destabilizing, but she had heard a song, a violin dubstep piece, that wasn't supposed to exist yet playing in the cafe which had her running to find her favorite waitress...who was noticeably absent.

Fortunately the cashier was the picture perfect example of what a pretty boy was supposed to look like and he was able to answer her questions about the new radio station. It didn't have an actual licensed name because they would have been sued by YouTube so it was most commonly referred to as Music Mania, but YouTube did allow their premium users use it as a form of advertising which was proving quite beneficial for both the radio station and YouTube itself. There were even rumors about a formal agreement in the works.

Anna crossed her arms and gave him a look that said he needed to get to the bloody point and fast. She wanted to know about the YouTuber that had been playing a few minutes ago and Sheena...seriously, who names a boy Sheena...responded that he wasn't paying attention but did say that the more popular artists usually came up often and he said that there were only a few violinists using the station right now, despite its growing popularity.

So Anna waited almost twenty minutes and was about to wring Sheena's neck when her eyes widened in recognition. Oh there was no way she wouldn't recognize that song. The one she had heard earlier had caught her off guard because she hadn't expected to hear its rendition until much later...the Pokemon theme tune via Lindsey Stirling style. It was...would be...whatever...co-ops with a guitarist whose name she was drawing a blank on.

Anyways fate seemed to be having some major mood swings...she had apparently dropped her phone and crushed it as she had been running off to find Ellie. After talking to Sheena, she went back and groaned at the sight of her poor phone. She smacked her head into the nearest shelf with a dull thud. This...this was getting fucking ridiculous! She retrieved what was left of her phone and the book, choosing to wait at one of the bar stools so she could hear the music better. Then after the wait and ordering an extra large coffee to go along with four others at Sheena's insistence, she ran like the wind...how she didn't lose her coffee, the book, and how she didn't hit a single person...she will never know.

The profiler was on the verge of screaming, the pain reaching an intensity he could no longer contain. He grunted as he was pushed flat onto his stomach, breaking under his weight. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. He could feel it...the pain in his body...it was receding...no, more like it was being pulled. His sense of hearing returned first and he heard a woman straining in effort. What was she doing to him and to herself?

The elder Zimmerman realized that whatever she was doing was forcing his true self back to the surface because he was honestly worried for a person he couldn't see. He had been right though. The loss of his shattered silver eyes meant that the real him was being buried again but why? Something must have changed, something big and the woman that was making the pain go away was attempting to shift things back...sorta. Ugh...his head felt like mush. He just wanted to go home and sleep for a week.

"I hate to rush ya, Neptune, but she's looking for us and it ain't time yet." Another woman spoke...definitely Celtic.

"I'm water, not electrical, so sue me for having problems with Sir-Sparks-A-Lot less than stellar mojo that's trying to deep fry his great nephew in a vain attempt to put his badassedness back into a gloriously gorgeous gentleman that has so graciously left pieces of himself all over the damn place!" The woman helping snapped straining even harder to speed up.

Wait...Light...the watch...when it shocked him...building up over time then blam...discharge but he's not electrical either but he was sound based. He focused solely on the sounds, internalizing to find the sounds that did not match his...holy shit. No wonder she's straining so hard...its all twisted up in here. Not a problem because this was his body. He latched onto the nearest thread and tugged it towards where the woman was in contact with his body.

"What the fuck? Okay, okay, I get it. I'll play conduit. Sheesh. How the hell has she put up with you all these years?" The woman responded.

"Neptune…" The Celtic girl spoke again, her tone more urgent.

"Sorry, Rem." Neptune replied her tone resolved.

"Yay, I get to pull meself an Eleven while ya busy feelin' up Mister Hottie." The Celtic girl griped as she leaves.

"Listen to me, William. We don't have a lot of time because they're coming. They're tracking the residual essence of the second captain. You need to push it into me as quickly as possible because my power can completely conceal it. Don't worry about me. They don't call me her Acheron for nothing." Neptune informed giving him a great deal of information but an even greater drive.

The Cabal...they were still searching for Artz and the Captains. Good but also bad because now he and Anna were about to be discovered. Not happening. He grabbed Light's lingering sounds and started shoving them into the water girl, only to hear her body's internal sounds scream in agony...Don't worry...he mentally apologized because he had to do whatever it took to keep his sister safe, find Artz and the Captains, then he'll deal with the bastards causing all this mess...he resumed the process and at a much higher intensity but he managed to get it all out.

The problem was that Neptune was audibly screaming in agony, but before he could even turn over, he found himself back in the carport of their apartment complex with his car right next to him. What the fuck was going on anymore? He slowly got onto his hands and knees, only to fall into his side. His head...his head was killing him.


End file.
